Musings Archive January 2004
Saturday, January 31, 2004 ALRIGHT, THE PATS WILL WIN: I guess it's time for me to register my absolutely final Super Bowl prediction. As you will remember on January 19 I had a 3 point spread with the New England Patriots winning because I thought the Pats were softer than most people thought. Well, two weeks of thinking has brought me to the conclusion that the Carolina Panthers defense isn't that good. They beat up on a Philadelphia Eagles team that simply ran out of gas in the second half. Oh yes, and that small matter of Donovan F. McNabb playing injured.
Las Vegas has moved its spread from 6.5 to 7 points in favour of the Patriots and I follow suit. I am now picking the Patriots to win by 10 points.
Posted by steve @ 06:17 PM EST [Link]
~ ONCE WE KILL YOU DEMOCRACY WILL BE ASSURED: Mullah Omar reportedly faxed in a message today to the Associated Press which accused the U.S. of destroying "Muslim values" in Afghanistan -- which presumably means shooting women in the head for leaving the house alone -- and that the Taliban would return.
Also, the best dressed man in that region, Hamid Karzai, said that Osama bin Laden was alive and likely somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:07 PM EST [Link]
~ EMAIL PROBLEMS RESOLVED: Hi ho there! Just reporting that our email problems have been resolved thanks to the kind people at Interland. Unfortunately I know for a fact that some of the email people sent to the editor at enter stage right dot com address has been lost. If you sent anything after Monday evening and didn't get a response, please feel free to resend it.
Posted by steve @ 02:55 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 30, 2004 LAST CHANCE TO BE BORED: Just got some sad news from Alan Caruba, the proprietor of The Boring Institute. After 20 years Alan is closing the shop on the institute and taking the web site down tomorrow. For your last chance to view the institute's work, visit the web site here.
Posted by steve @ 06:27 PM EST [Link]
~ AND THAT MAKES THREE: Andrew Gilligan, the man responsible for the "sexed up" story today resigned from the BBC. Certainly a victory for journalistic accountability even if Gilligan refuses to admit his part in the mess.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:00 PM EST [Link]
~ I SUPPOSE THAT'S LEADERSHIP OF ONE SORT: The New York Daily News reported today that Wesley Clark apparently sought the support of a radical Muslim group that is being investigated for ties to terrorist activities.
The Democratic presidential candidate's videotaped message was played Dec. 27 in Chicago for the annual conference of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America - a Queens group being probed by the FBI counterterrorism agents, said two federal law enforcement officials.
Both groups have held conferences featuring speakers accused of terror ties and have published material supporting suicide bombings against Israel.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:20 PM EST [Link]
~ OH COME ON...: I realize that not everyone believes in evolution. Frankly, I don't understand that but I can accept it. After all, my faith in the Toronto Maple Leafs has been unrewarded during my lifetime and yet I continue to to soldier on while Colorado, New Jersey and Detroit -- not to mention Montreal -- fans taunt me.
A lack of belief in evolution doesn't explain a proposal in Georgia. The state's school superintendent, Kathy Cox, has proposed dropping the word 'evolution' from the curriculum and replacing it with 'biological changes over time.'
Superintendent Kathy Cox said the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used. The proposal would not require schools to buy new textbooks omitting the word evolution and would not prevent teachers from using it.
Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching.
"If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, 'This is not what we want,' then we'll change it," said Cox, a Republican elected in 2002.
With all due respect to Ms. Cox, her teachers and the socially conservative parents who object, it's time to take that step into the 19th century. It won't hurt.
Posted by steve @ 02:09 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO WAS GIFTED: I don't know why this didn't get any press yesterday but ABC News apparently has a list it believes is made up of people who received contracts for barrels of oil. Who is on the list? How about British MP George Galloway, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Canada's own Arthur Millholland, CEO of Oilexco.
Read it all here.
Posted by steve @ 02:01 PM EST [Link]
~ THIS GUY WANTS TO BE OUR PRESIDENT?
During last night's Dem debate in South Carolina, Sen Kerry said that the threat of terrorism has been "exaggerated".
According to the Washington Times story:
'"I think there has been an exaggeration," Mr. Kerry said when asked whether President Bush has overstated the threat of terrorism. "They are misleading all Americans in a profound way."
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination said he would engage other nations in a more cooperative fashion to quell terrorism.
"This administration's arrogant and ideological policy is taking America down a more dangerous path," Mr. Kerry said. "I will make America safer than they are."'Terrorists kill 3,000 of our people in the worst attack ever on our soil, and this nut thinks the threat is exaggerated? God help us if he gets elected.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 10:41 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY ARE THEY CONSIDERED AN ALLY?: A spokesman for the Pakistan government denied this morning that American troops will be allowed to operate inside of Pakistan in their hunt for al-Qaida personnel.
I realize that Pervez Musharraf is still consolidating his position against extremist elements in his government but even denying the right to hot pursuit? What's worse is the wholesale transfer of nuclear technology out of Pakistan, as this story earlier today documents.
These guys are becoming about as trustworthy as the Saudis...
Posted by steve @ 04:59 AM EST [Link]
~ JUST DON'T ASK WHAT PERIOD IT IS: The Christian Science Monitor reports that advertising for the Super Bowl will be different this year: some of it will be geared to women.
• An ESPN poll three years ago revealed that women who watched TV sports favored NFL games above all other sports broadcasts.
• In 2002, a survey by Scarborough Sports Marketing, in New York, estimated that 50 million US women avidly followed professional sports - and confirmed pro football's top ranking.
• When last year's Super Bowl rolled around, nearly 40 million women tuned in, says Andrew Rohm, a professor of marketing at Boston's Northeastern University, "which is 10 million more than turned on the Academy Awards."
Actually, despite that jab at the top, I dig women who watch football. A good friend's girlfriend is very knowledgeable about the game and had a higher season percentage in a football pool she participated in at work then I did at a bar I frequent. In fact, I'll be watching the game with them.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:25 AM EST [Link]
~ DEPENDS ON WHAT NORMAL MEANS: Amir Taheri says that Iraq is becoming a normal nation despite what you've been told.
At a radio phone-in program the other day I was taken to task by some listeners for what they believed is Iraq’s “slide into chaos.” “You campaigned for the liberation of Iraq and now look what has happened!”
This was followed by a “what has happened” list of events that included Shiites demonstrating, Kurds asking for autonomy, Sunnis sulking, and various political parties and groups tearing each other apart in the Iraqi media over the shape of the future constitution.
The truth, however, is that, far from sliding into chaos or heading toward civil war, Iraq is beginning to become a normal society. And all normal societies face uncertainties just as do all normal human beings.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:19 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record arguing that the McGuinty government must cut spending in order to balance the budget, not tax and spend us to "prosperity." Click "More" to read it.
[more]
Posted by steve @ 02:13 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 29, 2004 GOOD NEWS FOR GOP IN CALIFORNIA: According to a recent poll, Dubya's approval rating is sitting at 52 per cent in California.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:47 PM EST [Link]
~ IS THIS REALLY A SURPRISE?: Gen. Ricardo Sanchez warned today that al-Qaida was attempting to gain a foothold in Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:44 PM EST [Link]
~ ONE OF OURS: One of the victims of this morning's terrorist attack in Jerusalem happened to be Jewish World Review contributor and Canadian native Chezi Goldberg.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:46 PM EST [Link]
~ I'VE BEEN IN LOVE WITH HER FOR YEARS: I've long believed that Patricia Heaton, co-star of Everybody Loves Raymond, is one of the best looking women in Hollywood. Heaton also happens to be a Christian who isn't caught up with life in the fast lane.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:31 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT'S ALWAYS A GOOD SIGN. NOT.: Howard Dean will skip Super Tuesday next week and concentrate his efforts on Michigan and Washington.
Michigan and Washington offer the former Vermont governor a better chance of victory and a bunch more delegates than do the states in Tuesday's contests.
"We're going to have to win eventually," Dean said, who has suffered back-to-back defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"But the question was do we have to win on February 3? Of course we want to. But we don't have to. What we've got to do is amass as many delegates as we can."
Read on.
Although the chap has lost two primaries, it must be noted he has more delegates than John Kerry. If you're wondering why, read this.
Posted by steve @ 06:26 PM EST [Link]
~ KIND OF LIKE KISSING THE PRETTIEST OF THE UGLY GROUP: Mark Steyn explains in a Spectator piece that John Kerry won in New Hampshire not because he's electable, but because he's the least unelectable of the Democratic candidates.
Read on.
Looks like both and I Mark gave Lieberman double digit points in New Hampshire...didn't cost me anything though.
Posted by steve @ 01:28 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER AT THE BEEB BITES THE DUST: Yesterday it was Gavyn Davies and today it's BBC director general Greg Dyke.
There is one name conspiciously missing in all of this...Andrew Gilligan?
It's not going to happen but the BBC needs more than a few good soldiers to fall on their swords. They need a wholesale philosophical shakeup -- not to turn them into a mindless drone that simply parrots the government's pro-Iraq message, but one that isn't blatantly (or otherwise) biased against the message. You know, neutral.
Posted by steve @ 01:23 PM EST [Link]
~ KERRY VS. EDWARDS: Interesting little piece in today's NRO about how John Kerry is bringing the battle to John Edwards.
But that's the story in South Carolina where prominent black congressman Jim Clyburn is publicly endorsing Sen. John Kerry while his most prominent adviser, Ike Williams, has been working hard for Sen. John Edwards for a week. Even in the Byzantine political world of South Carolina, this is strange.
It could be a sign that electability continues to replace anger as the dominant Democratic motivation in the primaries. Clyburn sees Edwards as electable in South Carolina, but he also sees Kerry as the most electable in November, so he makes the Solomon-like decision to support them both.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:14 PM EST [Link]
~ RELIGION OF PEACE STRIKES AGAIN: 55 people have been killed or wounded in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem today. The attack occured near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence onboard a bus.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:13 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 28, 2004 I THOUGHT THINGS WERE GOING WELL: After losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean today fired his campaign manager and replaced him with Roy Neel, a former chief of staff to Al Gore during his Senate and VP days. I'm not sure invoking the ghost of Gore is what you want to do after a bad start to the primary season.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:38 PM EST [Link]
~ PROBLEMS FOR THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY: John R. Bradley reports that discontent with the Saudi royal family has provoked a minor uprising in Sakaka, a city that borders Iraq. Both Islamic militants and those more tolerant, such as Shias who have been persecuted by the Wahhabist loving family, are causing big problems.
The tiny city of Sakaka, the capital of Saudi Arabia's remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq, may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a popular, violent revolution against the ruling Saud family. But you do not have to spend too long here to realise this is what is happening.
Al-Jouf has been witness to an extraordinary level of political violence in recent months. The deputy governor, say locals, was assassinated. Also killed was the police chief and the region's top Sharia court judge. Seven men have been arrested. Saudi officials admit the attacks are linked and that the seven may have been aided by as many as 40 others.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:58 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M SHOCKED: The Iraqi governing council is looking into allegations that that dozens of politicians, including those from sturdy ally France, received bribes to support Saddam Hussein's regime.
The 46 individuals, companies and organisations inside and outside Iraq were given millions of barrels of oil, the documents show. Thousands of papers were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organisation after Baghdad fell to US forces on 9 April.
"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a Governing Council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Rumours had circulated for months that documents implicating senior French individuals were about to surface. Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac staked out the moral high ground in opposing the invasion.
Although the list is news, I remember watching a news report about this early last year. The segment alleged that Switzerland was home to dozens of bank accounts where Iraqi money was funnelled to apologists of the Hussein dictatorship, proceeds from the sale of oil earmarked for the bribees.
Posted by steve @ 06:52 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE VOUCHERS FOR ALL: U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige announced today that private school vouchers represent "emancipation" for poor and minority students.
Shhhh Rod...all the white parents who send their children to private schools will cry racism.
Posted by steve @ 06:39 PM EST [Link]
~ TEKNUCKLE DEFFIKULTIES: It would appear that our mail server isn't functioning properly at the moment, probably because of the incredible amount of virus-laden email we're receiving. If you try and send us something and don't receive a response, please be patient.
[Update - 6:44pm] Wow. I just went into the administrator's section and I'm literally receiving one to two thousand emails every minute in a catchall account I primarily use as a spam bucket. I currently have nearly 36 000 emails at this moment taking up nearly 2 gigs of space.
Posted by steve @ 06:29 PM EST [Link]
~ BLAIR WINS, DAVIES LOSES: The Hutton Report looking into allegations that Tony Blair's government "sexed up" the late David Kelly's report on WMDs in Iraq today announced that the BBC's charges were completely unfounded.
In response, BBC chairman Gavyn Davies resigned.
Read the Hutton Report here.
This is a big blow to the BBC and justly so. Perhaps in the future it won't allow its prejudices to taint its reporting. Well, you can always hope.
Posted by steve @ 06:18 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO REALLY LOST IN N.H.: John Podhoretz argues that the biggest loser in New Hampshire was the media.
The results last night in New Hampshire represent a humiliating disaster for the mainstream media. The political reporters and editors who have been judging this race for a year have made utter fools of themselves.
Nobody foresaw John Kerry's huge victory in Iowa. It was suggested that Kerry was doing better in the weeks before the caucuses, but no reporter even imagined Kerry might pull 38 percent of the caucus-goers there. The press failed just as miserably in New Hampshire - but this time by overestimating and overrating John Edwards.
The North Carolina senator was said to be surging by journalists on the campaign trail who positively slobbered over Edwards' brilliance - a "natural" campaigner, better than Bill Clinton, etc. That talk continued unabated after Edwards' horrible performance in the New Hampshire debate last Thursday, when at least one or two reporters in Iowa might have thought twice about praising his skills as a campaigner.
There was no such thing as the Edwards surge. He ended up somewhere around 12 percent, a spectacularly dismal showing considering that he had scored 32 percent in Iowa only eight days before.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:26 PM EST [Link]
~ TWO FOR TWO FOR DEAN: Close but no cigar for me:
My guess/Results
Kerry: 36% / Kerry: 39%
Dean: 26% / Dean: 26%
Edwards: 15% / Clark: 12%
Clark: 11% / Edwards: 12%
Lieberman: 10% / Lieberman: 9%
Kucinich: >1% / Kucinich: 2%
Sharpton: >1% / Sharpton: 0%Better luck next time. Rather funny to hear Howard Dean be happy about a second place finish, though I suppose it is better than what happened in Iowa. At any rate, read all about what happened in New Hampshire here if you haven't already.
Posted by steve @ 01:01 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 27, 2004 AFGHAN WAR HALTED CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAMS: American and Malaysian security officials stated today that the American-led war against the Taliban halted a nascent al-Qaida program to develop biological and chemical weapons.
The information on the state of Osama bin Laden's weapons plan came from interrogations of terrorist suspects captured in Southeast Asia and from clues gathered in the Afghan battlefield, the authorities said.
The project was being developed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials believe the program was being run by Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and U.S.-trained biochemist, under the direction of Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, an Indonesian accused of heading al-Qaida's operations in Southeast Asia.
Both men are suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group.
Yazid was arrested in December 2001 as he returned to Malaysia from Afghanistan. Hambali was arrested last August in Thailand and is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:05 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIAN SOLDIER KILLED: Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, less than 10 days away from coming home, was killed today by a suspected Taliban suicide bomber in Kabul.
Murphy was a member of the Parachute Company Third Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battalion Group.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:01 PM EST [Link]
~ HIPPIES SHOULD DIE: I won't inflict another baby boomer related attack on you but David Janes tears apart the silly Ben of Ben and Jerry's fame, who recently whined about the lack of social spending in the U.S. David's response was more effective than words.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ CLARK WINS BIG IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: You heard it here first! Okay, the reality is that the residents of Dixville Notch in N.H. have just cast their ballots -- all 15 of them -- and Clark came first with 8 votes.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:18 AM EST [Link]
~ STEVE'S NEW HAMPSHIRE GUESSES: I suppose I should join the rest of the blogosphere in guessing the final numbers for today's New Hampshire primary. Here goes:
- John Kerry: 36 per cent
- Howard Dean: 26 per cent
- John Edwards: 15 per cent
- Wesley Clark: 11 per cent
- Joe Lieberman: 10 per cent
- Dennis Kucinich: <1 per cent
- Al Sharpton: <1 per cent
Posted by steve @ 02:30 AM EST [Link]
~ GOOD...JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH: David Brooks believes that John Edwards' "January speech" is a thing of beauty, "an overarching vision and the coherence of a fine short story." Why isn't he going to win? Because the answers he provides are too shallow compared to someone like John Kerry's platform.
Read on. (NYT, free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 02:19 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY DEMS ARE MOVING TO KERRY: According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, many Democrats are moving to John Kerry because they believe he can beat George W. Bush.
When Democrats are asked whether they'd rather have a candidate they agreed with on most issues or a candidate who would have a better chance of beating Bush, they choose the latter by a margin of 2 to 1, says Rich Killion, a pollster at Franklin Pierce College. "That isn't a gap, that's a canyon," he says.
This sentiment is clearly motivating Democrats to a greater extent than in recent cycles, with most observers here expecting a large turnout Tuesday, even amid predictions of a snowstorm.
But it's also created challenges, as candidates struggle to stand out in a race where issue contrasts are less important. At times it has made the process seem strangely depersonalized.
At a recent Clark rally in Portsmouth, one speaker opened by saying, "Now I know many of you are just ABB [Anyone But Bush]," pleading with them to look specifically at Clark's qualifications. Likewise, in Nashua, a voter at a Kerry rally held up a sign that didn't even contain the candidate's name: "He's the one Bush won't beat."
Well, I don't know about that. I think even the most partisan of Democrats will admit that November is Dubya's election to lose.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:17 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 26, 2004 MORE ON MILLER: AP has a little story about Dennis Miller whose new program on CNBC debuts tonight at 9:00pm. Make sure to watch it!
Dennis Miller has usually been happy to spray his acerbic wit across the political spectrum, but things will be different on his new CNBC talk program.
President Bush is in a mock-free zone.
"I like him," Miller explained. "I'm going to give him a pass. I take care of my friends."
Hey, there's nothing wrong with unloading on your friends occasionally Dennis...keeps them on their toes.
Posted by steve @ 01:57 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WAR IS BIGGER THAN JUST IRAQ: Michael Ledeen argues that we are too focused on Iraq, that we must realize that the real war is.
Bad analysis leads inevitably to bad policy, and our narrow focus on Iraq costs lives. Widespread terrorism and political demonstrations are not organized solely, or even primarily, by the shattered remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime, nor by the splintered pieces of al Qaeda. The war against us in Iraq and Afghanistan is an existential struggle guided, funded, and armed by tyrannical regimes in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, because they are convinced — rightly enough — that if we succeed, they are doomed to fall in a regional democratic revolution. Their plan, modeled on the strategy that drove us out of Lebanon in the 1980s, was prepared long before we attacked.
They made no secret of their intentions. Prior to the liberation, Syrian President Bashar Assad publicly called for a "Lebanon strategy," and in August, the head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, called for the entire Muslim world to join in a jihad against Americans in Iraq. Throughout, Iranian leaders and Saudi clerics have denounced the American actions in Iraq and joined the call for jihad.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ THE REALITY ABOUT IRAN: Darius Dana corrects some accepted 'facts' about Iran, such as that President Khatami is a democratically elected moderate.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:45 PM EST [Link]
~ THE WORLD IS CHANGING: Excellent piece in today's Christian Science Monitor about the changes Sudan is experiencing.
Standing amid the ruins of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant here, an avuncular man named Idris Babiker Eltayeb has every reason to detest America. After all, the US sent 13 cruise missiles to demolish his factory in 1988, saying there was evidence it was making chemical weapons for Osama bin Laden.
Yet as he steps carefully between piles of twisted concrete, pointing out pieces of American missiles still lying in the dust, he's got a smile on his face - and architectural plans under his arm. He aims to rebuild the factory - and make American drugs in it. He's also negotiating with a US firm to distribute its drugs here.
His long journey from US target to budding partner mirrors Sudan's. In five years, this North African nation has gone from international pariah to tentative US antiterror ally. America is now deluging Sudan with promises of aid and invitations to the White House to sign a peace deal ending its 20-year civil war. Many here think it could be a model for Syria, Iran, and even North Korea to come in from the terror-supporting cold.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:09 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 25, 2004 MADNESS AND BOREDOM: Mark Steyn has a typically humorous and insightful piece about what Iowa has wrought for the Democrats.
As some readers may recall, having spent a decade watching Dean govern Vermont as a dull centrist, I've long argued that the crazy guy running around this last year was just an act, a bit of canny opportunism from a minor local pol who needed to get himself a national profile in nothing flat. Unfortunately, Dean's simulated Mad How disease was so convincing he caught a touch of it himself. If you've seen ''Lost In Translation,'' you'll know there's a marvelous scene where sad middle-age Bill Murray has a night out with Scarlett Johansson and comes to life doing karaoke versions of '80s rock songs. That's Dean. He's right: He's not a rock star. But for months on end he's been doing rock-star karaoke with legions of Scarlett Johansson-type college cuties. You can't blame the guy for getting carried away.
The trouble is that he has now overcompensated. His minders have evidently told him it's not enough to go back to being the authentically boring Howard Dean -- he's got to be mega-boring. In his interview with Diane from Vermont's charmingly restored Norwich Inn, he seemed to be fading into the authentic colonial wainscoting. The Vermonster had become, in '80s karaoke terms, the Calmer Calmer Calmer Calmer Calmer Chameleon. At Thursday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, the calmer he got -- ''balanced budgets, fiscally conservative manageable budgets, budgets in balance fiscally conservative'' -- the more the bored Dean watchers speculated that he was about to go berserk, like kids at the zoo eager to start lobbing pebbles at the slumbering gorilla.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:09 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 23, 2004 ONE COOL SIDE EFFECT OF MULTICULTURALISM: The birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns and the dawn of the Chinese New Year apparently coincide. What do good Canadians do? Why celebrate both at the same time!
Chinese men don kilts and Scots tuck into haggis wonton in a multi-culti Chinese New Year party for Robbie Burns that began as a gag get-together among university friends and spread like an endless egg noodle.
More than 500 culture vultures in Vancouver have snapped up tickets for the festivities Saturday and Sunday to celebrate the Scottish bard whose day falls at the dawn of the Chinese New Year. Chicken feet, haggis, anything goes at the 12-course fusion feast.
"This is what Canadian society is all about, introducing each other to our cultures and celebrating more holidays," said organizer Todd Wong.
It actually is kind of cool though you'd have to put a gun to my head for me to eat haggis. I have, however, worn a kilt. It was part of my regimental formal dress for the Second Battalion, Irish Regiment of Canada.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:57 PM EST [Link]
~ WE NEED A CIVIL WAR: Although she occasionally annoys me, Elizabeth Nickson had a marvy essay in today's National Post arguing that unlike our American cousins, Canadians discuss little of importance.
Not fair, not fair, not fair. The Americans can have a war of ideas and we can't discuss anything. Because anything not out of the Bigger Government playbook is called right-wing extremism, and worse Christian, and thus demonized. Meanwhile, the sleepiest country in the world, which lives next door to the most vibrant country in the world, continues to tumble into the wormhole of complete irrelevance. Unluckily for us, the extraordinary American growth and innovation can float even our dozy economy, and we never have to grow up and behave like adults.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:47 PM EST [Link]
~ DAMNED LIES: John Stossel, whose new book I just received and can't wait to tear into, has a special on ABC tonight entitled "Lies, Myths and Downright Stupidity with John Stossel". It will be on from 10:00pm to 11:00pm EST.
Sorry for the lack of blogging today...taking care of a 2 1/2 year old, as any parent will testify, can be somewhat time consuming.
Posted by steve @ 06:36 PM EST [Link]
~ I'D SAY BETTER: The Democrats have been trying to make the case that the U.S. is worse off than it was before the invasion of Iraq, a conclusion that Victor Davis Hanson doesn't share.
Posted by steve @ 11:28 AM EST [Link]
~ A TRILLION HERE...A TRILLION THERE: And pretty soon you're talking about real money. The Christian Science Monitor reports today that Republicans are getting ready for a battle over the budget. With their own president.
Although Dubya promised to keep growth in non-discretionary spending below 4 per cent in his State of the Union speech earlier this week, plenty of GOPers are worried about how much money is being spent by the president on all his pet projects.
Many Republicans worry that tax cuts without significant spending cuts cannot be sustained. Moreover, they note that much of the increase has been in nondefense discretionary spending. The conservative Club for Growth estimates that the Bush administration has increased domestic discretionary spending by 8.2 percent, compared with 2.5 percent during the Clinton years.
In response to such concerns, the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of some 90 GOP conservatives, this week called for zero net growth in spending for the 2005 fiscal year and urged the president to find offsets for any new spending.
Hard to argue with anyone who thinks Bush is spending like a poet in a bar on payday.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 22, 2004 YOU THINK IT'S RAINING HARD NOW?: Mel Gibson told a meeting of 4,500 evangelical Christian pastors yesterday that the "worst is yet to come" over his movie The Passion of the Christ.
I guess we'll find out on February 25.
Posted by steve @ 07:35 PM EST [Link]
~ THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO PARTIES: All the focus has been on the Democrats and Republicans so far when it comes to Election 2004 coverage but there are other parties out there. One of them is the Constitution Party which is holding its convention in June. It would appear that the party's nominee will be Michael Peroutka. Learn more about him here.
Posted by steve @ 07:24 PM EST [Link]
~ CLARK CLASSLESS: As you may have heard, Wesley Clark, the general fired as Supreme Commander in Europe, dissed John Kerry's war service this week on two seperate occasions.
"[W]ith all due respect, [John Kerry is] a lieutenant and I'm a general....It's one thing to be a hero as a junior officer. He's done that and I respect him for that. He's been a good senator. But I've had the military leadership at the top as well as at the bottom."
I dislike Kerry's politics as much as anyone on the right can but this is one of the more abhorent attacks on the man I've seen in a while. As Tacitus points out, Kerry was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts during his service in Vietnam. It's absolutely disgusting that a fellow Vietnam vet would disrespect one of his brothers like this.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:42 PM EST [Link]
~ THE HULK ISN'T UNBEATABLE: Contary to what you may think, The Hulk isn't unbeatable. He's fought The Thing -- and usually won -- but he's also lost to The Abomination and Doc Samson. Going into Iowa, Howard Dean was The Hulk, as evidenced by his screamapiller yelp Monday night, but he got beat nonetheless.
Mark Steyn goes over the results of Iowa, why The Hulk lost, and who he thought was the real winner. Hint, it isn't who you think it is.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:33 PM EST [Link]
~ FACE TO FACE WITH BELINDA: ESR contributor Jackson Murphy met Canada's newest political star Wednesday night. Belinda Stronach met with Conservative Party of Canada party members and the curious in a pub in Vancouver and Jackson was impressed by her...well, except for her being 45 minutes late.
Jackson's permalinks aren't working correctly so go to his blog and scroll down to "Close encounters of the Belinda Stronach kind"
So she smells nice, eh Jackson?
Posted by steve @ 01:12 AM EST [Link]
~ VINCENT GALLO...CONSERVATIVE?: Vincent Gallo, a writer, actor and director, has made the entertainment news quite a bit in the past year. After Roger Ebert savaged his movie The Brown Bunny -- one that includes Gallo being...hmmm...pleasured on screen -- and a resulting war of words between the two, Gallo has been pilloried by the media. Now comes word that he's a conservative.
Mr. Gallo, 41, is a devout if unlikely member of the G.O.P., an outspoken Republican who rivals only punk rocker Mr. Ramone, Motörhead bassist and hair-meister Lemmy Kilmister, and Factory alum Paul Morrissey for the title of Least Likely Celebrity Conservative. He has been a part of the downtown art scene since the late 1970’s—a product of the days of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Studio 54’s Steve Rubell (both friends of Mr. Gallo before they died of a drug overdose and AIDS, respectively)—and his most recent film, The Brown Bunny, turns an extended *** into a new form of cinema vérité.
He is hardly the poster child for the Moral Majority.
But Mr. Gallo insisted that he’s the real deal. "There’s a picture of me at 6 years old campaigning for Richard Nixon. I’ve always been the same. Always. I was against hippies," he told his Young Republican Club hosts. He loves President Bush and loathes "self-serving" lefties, particularly "that commie crawfish, Al Franken," and that "destructive hog," Michael Moore. And he thinks politicians spend too much time pandering to special interests like "the gays, the AARP, handicapped groups." When he gets going on the media’s anti-Republican bias, as he did the other night, Mr. Gallo sounds like a regular Bill O’Reilly.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:49 AM EST [Link]
~ IRAN LINKED TO SEPTEMBER 11?: A shocking development in Germany on Wednesday:
On what had been the eve of his widely expected acquittal, the trial of the second person charged by German authorities as an accomplice of the Sept. 11 hijackers was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after prosecutors disclosed the existence of a surprise witness purporting to link Iran to the hijackings.
The mysterious witness, who goes by the name Hamid Reza Zakeri and claims to have been a longtime member of the Iranian intelligence service, is said to have told German investigators that the Sept. 11 plot represented what one termed a "joint venture" between the terrorist group al-Qaida and the Iranian government.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:45 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 21, 2004 THE NOT STUPID PARTY: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) Earlier this month a clod named Neil Starkman wrote a column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer claiming that the reason why people supported George W. Bush was, gosh darned it, because they are stupid. Channeling Michael Moore, he wrote that they are the type of people who just don't understand the wider world. Said Starkman:
The answer, I'm afraid, is the factor that dare not speak its name. It's the factor that no one talks about. The pollsters don't ask it, the media don't report it, the voters don't discuss it.
I, however, will blare out its name so that at last people can address the issue and perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it.
It's the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people -- sometimes through no fault of their own -- are just not very bright.
Well, Caroline Overington of The Age has a different opinion of why Americans support Dubya.
Americans support the war in Iraq and, by extension, Bush because they see it as part of a bigger picture. Like everybody, they now know that Saddam was not the threat they thought he was (at least, not to them) but they still think it was a good idea to deal with him, before he became one.
The price of freedom is high. You might think you would not sacrifice your life for it, but maybe you don't have to. After all, 20-year-old Americans are doing it for you, every day.
The saddest moment of 2003 was when I realized that Canadian soldiers would not be marching beside their American and British cousins and fighting for liberty.
Posted by steve @ 06:41 PM EST [Link]
~ IT DOES SEND A MESSAGE: If you will remember, on Sunday radio stations across the world played host to a six hour program that promised a method that would eventually topple the Iranian theocratic regime. If you missed the show, the plan basically entails turning off as many lights as possible.
A long study has shown that "Silent Referendum" which could take place by a "Black Out" at a pre-determined time and interval, will result in unity of the Iranian people. Base on declaration of the IOT members and their approval, since Jan. 22, 2004 (2 Bahman Mah 1382) all Iranians who believe that this regime should be removed from power, will turn off all their lights at home and workplaces (if private & possible) for half an hour from 9.00 - 9.30 pm on Thursday nights. No one should wait for others in order to follow him. Every Iranian should feel that he or she is a leader in this movement and should speak with at least two people in order to convince and ask them to do so.
Visit here to find out all the details and why they think this will work.
[Update - 4:44pm] Please note, this is merely one segment of the plan. As Blog Iran points out, the rest of the plan is being translated from Farsi to English at this moment so stay tuned.
Posted by steve @ 02:10 PM EST [Link]
~ SAY "THANK YOU"
Chuck Muth, in his "News and Views" email newsletter reflects on the President's State of the Union speech. One of his points is this:
'* Finally, my favorite line of the entire evening. In giving that
10-year-old girl her good-citizen marching orders, the President suggested
something which every darned one of us should take to heart: When you see a
man or woman in uniform, say "thank you."'I bring this up so that I can share a personal experience. Over the holidays, I had occasion to be in the Baltimore-Washington airport. Uniformed military personnel were all over, coming back from or going back to Iraq and Afganistan. My wife and I made it a point to say "thank you" and to shake hands with as many as we could. When I went to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, there was a soldier in line in front of me. As the clerk rang up his order, I reached around him and paid the clerk. The soldier said to me, "You sure you want to do that?" I said yes, I was sure. He thanked me and at that point, I was so choked up, I couldn't respond.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the military, I guess since I spent half of my life in the military. All those dedicated young kids, working in wretched conditions to protect our freedom and safety, makes me incredibly proud of them. We can't thank them enough.
So again, I say "Thank you".
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 09:54 AM EST [Link]
~ REACTIONS TO THE SOU: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of some of the blogosphere's reaction to George W. Bush's State of the Union address.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 20, 2004 MIXED BAG: QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE SOU ADDRESS: As Joe Klein stated on CNN, this is the first speech in the Bush administration's history that was delivered without some major drama surrounding it so it wasn't surprising that this wasn't George W. Bush's strongest State of the Union address.
Not surprisingly about half of the speech -- the strongest part in my opinoin -- dealt with the ongoing war against terrorist activity and related issues like Iraq. With Adnan Pachachi, head of interim Iraqi council, in attendance, Bush painted a fairly positive picture of how things were going in Iraq. Although Bush mentioned that dozens of WMD programs and "significant" amounts of related equipment had been found, he chose to dwell on other benefits of the war, namely the liberation of the Iraqi people.
I have to admit I particularly enjoyed the moment when he argued that it was "not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers," that military action was needed as well. That military action, he stated, underlined America's resolve to stop hostile regimes from gaining WMDs or employing them. I think it was quite credible for him to argue that this resolve was key in the U.S. and Britain in convincing Libya to renounce its WMD programs.
I was surprised that Bush brought up the USA PATRIOT Act, a piece of legislation that has its enemies on both sides of the political fence. Although some Democrats applauded the idea that certain provisions would expire in 2005 -- this after all but one of them voted in favor of the act in the first place -- it's hard to believe that those controversial provisions won't be renewed by Congress. I thought it was risky for Bush to bring up unpopular legislation.
Best bit: "Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their sacrifices. From the beginning, America has sought international support for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people."
Unfortunately the second half of the speech was a bit of a letdown for me. I realize that he faces reelection later this year so he has to appeal to Americans on domestic issues, but much of his proposals could have been directly lifted from a Bill Clinton speech. The call for the tax cuts to be made permanent was a good one and action against frivolous lawsuits -- which he repeated twice -- are good moves though I'm not confident that any meaningful tort reform will actually take place given the lobbying power of lawyers. Less enticing is all the spending that he wants to commit to education, which according to my copy of the American constitution, is not a federal matter.
What I really liked in the second half was Bush's call for personal retirement accounts and medical savings accounts. He faces a very tough fight on both these fronts if he decides to pursue them but I think they are both good steps in preventing those entitlements from growing substantially in the future.
It was, as the title of this blog entry states, for me a mixed bag. It's hard to fault the president on the war against terrorism and initiatives like tort reform, personal savings accounts and medical savings accounts, but his increased spending on education and praise of the prescription drug benefit and proposed immigration reforms leave me a bit cold.
Grade: C+
Read the speech here.
Posted by steve @ 10:42 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS THE UNION COVERING IMMIGRATION WORKERS CAN BRAG THEY STOPPED A TERRORIST AT THE BORDER: U.S. officials suspect that one of the men being held at Guantanamo Bay is in fact the 20th hijacker that al-Qaida sent to carry out the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Al-Qahtani (whose full name has not been disclosed) is "not saying anything" to his interrogators at Guantanamo, an official said.
Newsweek magazine first reported that al-Qahtani was suspected to have been a potential 20th hijacker and that he was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
U.S. immigration authorities turned the man away at Orlando International Airport in Florida in August 2001, Newsweek reported. The immigration officer who stopped him from entering the United States is expected to testify soon before the independent commission investigating the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials said.
Posted by steve @ 07:10 PM EST [Link]
~ BELINDA!: As expected, Belinda Stronach announced her candidacy for the Conservative Party of Canada today. You can visit her very colorful web site here to learn more about here. Interesting item: She has a blog, but then again so does everyone. Disappointing feature: Few specifics on policies but I'm sure she'll address that soon.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 PM EST [Link]
~ THE PASSION OF CHRIST SAGA CONTINUES: In the latest in the saga, an aide Pope John Paul II said yesterday that while the Pontiff watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ, he told no one about his opinion of the movie.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's long-time private secretary, told the Catholic News Service Monday: "The Holy Father told no one of his opinion of this film."
In the past seven weeks, major world media organizations have written reports based on Church sources saying the pope liked the film and that he told aides that it was an accurate portrayal of Biblical accounts of Christ's final hours.
I'm seriously getting sick of this movie before I've even seen it and I really want to see it.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:30 PM EST [Link]
~ QUICK IOWA RUNDOWN: So John Kerry has won the Iowa caucuses and John Edwards has come in second. What does it all mean? Here's the breakdown for each major candidate:
KERRY: This last-minute upset victory unquestionably breathes new life into his candidacy. It gives him enough momentum going into the New Hampshire primary to throw that race open. He might be able to bypass Wesley Clark for second place or even do something that has been unthinkable for months - come in first, beating Howard Dean. But even if he doesn't, Iowa makes it possible for Kerry to lose N.H. and not have to drop out of the race.
EDWARDS: This establishes John Edwards as a major candidate, not merely a darkhorse, and makes some sense out of his decision to forego reelection to the Senate in favor of a longhshot presidential bid. He needs to keep the momentum going in N.H. and absolutely has to win South Carolina or this will be his peak.
DEAN: This is extremely disappointing for Dean and does make him look less than inevitable, but let's keep this in perspective. George Bush ran third in the Iowa caucuses against Bob Dole and Pat Robertson in 1988, but nevertheless managed to win the nomination and the presidency. Similar examples abound. But this just reinforces Dean's need for a convincing win in N.H. and a way to handle lingering Democratic doubts about his electability.
GEPHARDT: Time to drop out. Iowa was a must-win and he did not. It will only get worse from here and there is no longer any compelling rationale for his campaign or reason to think he is viable.
CLARK: He needs to finish in the top three in N.H. and preferably ahead of Kerry, otherwise he will be lost in the post-Iowa shuffle. Will he be able to keep up his momentum now that it has been proven other candidates can outpoll Dean? We'll see, he's been drawing large and enthusiastic crowds in the Granite State.
LIEBERMAN: Let's face it Joe, you're a long shot. Lieberman needs to establish himself as a credible, top-tier candidate in N.H. to stay alive. He needs to finish in the top three at this point or hope that Dean wins by enough to force Kerry, Clark and Edwards out of the race. The latter ain't gonna happen, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that the former will either.
Posted by antle @ 12:50 AM EST [Link]
~ SURPRISE IN IOWA: Hound dog faced Sen. John Kerry won in Iowa Monday evening in what can only be called a surprise...if you ignore the fact that Howard Dean placed in third behind John Edwards. After placing fourth, it is expected that Dick Gephardt will likely drop out.
So what does this mean? You guessed it, absolutely nothing. If you remember back in 2000, George W. Bush got an early scare from Pat Buchanan and yet history records Dubya in the White House these past four years. Kerry still has as much chance of winning the Democratic nomination as I do.
Read on.
Make sure to also go to Mark Steyn's Demo*lition Derby and make new picks if you didn't have Gephardt.
Posted by steve @ 12:47 AM EST [Link]
~ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BATTLE FLARES UP AGAIN: The battle over affirmative action in Michigan appears not to be over. An effort is under way right now to place an amendment in that state's constitution that bans racial preferences in hiring and school admissions.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:36 AM EST [Link]
~ GIMLI UNDER ATTACK: Brian Tiemann reports on, and has some comments about, the controversy surrounding comments John Rhys-Davies made which some are taking to be an attack on Muslims.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 19, 2004 SO I WANT AN APATHETIC, CENTER-LEFT POLITICIAN WHO DOESN'T CARE ABOUT POLITICS?: Belinda Stronach, the 37-year old CEO of the $15 billion Magna International empire will formally announced tomorrow she's running for the leadership of Canada's new conservative political party, the Conservative Party of Canada.
I have to admit that I was surprised to learn that she was a conservative. I met her father in the late 1980s when I was a member of the Liberal Party and I never got the impression he was a conservative liberal. That said, I'm kind of interested in Belinda Stronach -- the fact that she's single, female and conservative doesn't hurt -- for the fact that she's a new face.
Some, however, think that it's not her newness that's a handicap, but her wealth.
David Taras from the University of Calgary said Stronach must overcome her millionaire roots by being honest about who she is and what she's done as the CEO of a $15-billion-a-year corporation.
"She has to prove to Canadians that she's like them, and I think that's very difficult," he said.
"People see her through the limousines and the private jets and the horses. Who is this person and how do they relate to me?"
I seriously don't want to come across as an elitist, but I really don't want a politician who is like the average Canadian. The average Canadian doesn't care. And if Canadians are so in love with the common man, why is a multi-millionaire who inherited a giant shipping company the current prime minister?
For the record, I'm leaning towards Stephen Harper because I supported him during his bid for the Canadian Alliance leadership but I am open to different candidates. And Belinda, if you aren't soured on marriage after your last divorce, entertain the option of dating a slightly younger, hardworking, nice, conservative writer. I'll even sign a pre-nup.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:33 PM EST [Link]
~ WHEN COULD YOU TRUST A PROMISE BY SHEILA COPPS?: The ongoing saga between Sheila Copps and Paul Martin continued today. Today the ex-cabinet minister announced that she would sign a Liberal Party form promising not to run for the NDP. She also stated, however, that she doesn't consider herself legally bound by the promise.
"I don't believe that the form is worth the paper that it's written on," Copps said in an interview Monday. "But I will sign it, because I have no choice."
Unless the Martin regime consolidated all power and has turned Canada into a dictatorship, I believe Ms. Copps still has a choice. If she signs it and then runs for the NDP, she has broken a promise. You know, like that GST thing a couple of years ago...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:22 PM EST [Link]
~ TCS LOOKS AT THE IOWA BREAKDOWN: Chris Hull has a great piece looking at the Iowa caucuses for Tech Central Station.
Posted by antle @ 06:25 PM EST [Link]
~ ON THE RUN: Good report by AP today about the increasing anger of Iraqis over the guerrilla attacks which are killing coalition troops and civilians alike. In response, they are helping coalition forces target insurgents.
For six months, the Arab foreigners lived quietly in a Baghdad neighborhood with their wives and children, until neighbors tipped off U.S. forces they could be insurgents.
On Monday morning, American soldiers came to the door of a brown-brick house and - speaking in Arabic over a loudspeaker - ordered those inside to surrender.
When the raid was over, three men were dead, a Syrian and two Yemenis. Two of the men were shot trying to escape; the other blew himself up in the front yard. Inside the house, U.S. troops found a weapons cache.
The U.S. military had no comment on the incident. But witnesses and Iraqi police described how Iraqi civilians, increasingly frustrated with guerrilla violence, are cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition to catch suspected rebels.
Other Iraqi neighbors applauded the move.
"Had I known who they were, I would have turned them in myself," said Almas Zia Youssef, 24, standing with curious onlookers outside the house where her neighbors were killed at dawn.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:38 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M MORALLY OPPOSED TO DRINKING GAMES: As I believe drinking is a philosophy, but longtime contributor Jackson Murphy (who also runs the blog Dispatches) brought my attention to the The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2004.
After a quick look at what you have to take a drink for, I can see someone getting seriously hurt by the end of the speech.
Posted by steve @ 03:22 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: Readers who live in the Cleveland area might be interested in purchasing tickets to the Medina County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, where I will be the keynote speaker. It's being held on February 28 and I believe tickets are on sale. The county party's website is here.
Posted by antle @ 03:02 PM EST [Link]
~ WEEKEND OF WOWS...SUNDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: Quick: Can you name what arguably was one of the best teams between 1990 and 1994? The answer? The Buffalo Bills. The team made it to four straight Super Bowls but ended up losing to the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. Although the Bills were never able to climb to the top of the hill they deserve respect for at least getting near it.
The Philadelphia Eagles kind of remind me of those Bills. For the third straight year the Eagles reached the NFC championship game and once again they lost, this time in the weekend's unlikiest upset. Going into the game Carolina had a good defense but they absolutely savaged Philadelphia. The Eagles receivers dropped six balls, Donovan McNabb was picked three times and he and Koy Detmer were sacked five times.
I think big changes are in store for the Eagles and we may see a year where they take a step back and reassess the direction they've been taking, especially since a number of players will be leaving due to free agency.
Trivia question of the week: Who is the last team to lose three straight conference championships? The Dallas Cowboys from 1980-82.
In the New England-Indianapolis game I picked the Colts to upset the Pats but the only thing upset was Peyton Manning. New England got him dirty and got him off his game though to be kind nothing was working for the Colts on either side of the ball. On Friday I formally switched my pick to New England but since I am on record having picked the Colts I shall honor my original selection.
So what about the Super Bowl? Well, I had Indianapolis winning over Philadelphia so that's obviously not going to happen. A lot of people will likely give the Patriots the favored status against Carolina but if Sunday proved anything, the Panthers are very dangerous. What bothered me about the Pats was their absolute inability to get the ball in the endzone -- they only scored one touchdown -- and Carolina's defence is considerably tougher than Indianapolis'.
The line in Vegas has New England favored by 6.5 points over Carolina. I don't feel confident about this but I will pick New England to win but by 3. If, however, New England can't punch that ball into the endzone on February 1, I wouldn't be surprised if Carolina wins that game.
With that in mind, this week's Cheerleader of the Week is Pats cheerleader Melinda McGrath, a first year member of the squad. Along with the obvious reason, Melinda earns a place in my heart for loving Frank Sinatra, the namesake of my home Fort Sinatra. She also enjoys shopping, traveling and playing ping pong. I'd lose to her anytime she wanted.
Posted by steve @ 01:36 AM EST [Link]
~ THAT TIGHT DEM RACE: John Podhoretz has a nice analysis of the Democratic race ahead of tomorrow's Iowa caucuses, complete with what it would take for each leading candidate to defeat Howard Dean. Even with last-minute surges by Kerry and Edwards, I still think Dean is the man to beat. But we'll see.
Posted by antle @ 12:33 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 18, 2004 OH WELL: "Mortar shells found in Iraq and believed to be suspicious in fact contained no chemical agents, the Danish army said after a week of tests."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:46 PM EST [Link]
~ IS IT STILL ILLEGAL TO BE A JEW OR CHRISTIAN IN SAUDI ARABIA?: Thousands of Muslim women marched in Paris today to protest a ban on head coverings from public schools arguing that it's an attack on religious freedom.
Posted by steve @ 02:53 AM EST [Link]
~ WHAT QUEER EYE REALLY MEANS: Joseph Kellard has an interesting article up about what Queer Eye for the Straight Guy really means. All I know is I want Kyan Douglas to look at my hair...I need a new haircut.
Posted by steve @ 02:06 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 17, 2004 MAKE MLK DAY MORE POPULAR: Steve Sailer, interviewed by Bernard Chapin in the pages of ESR last week, has a proposal to get more people and employers to observe Martin Luther King Day: change it from King's birthday to the date of one of his greatest achievements:
"Instead of commemorating the day when King was born, follow the precedent set by Columbus Day. We don't celebrate Columbus on the day of his birth, but on the anniversary of his greatest feat, reaching the New World on Oct. 12, 1492.
Similarly, we could commemorate what might be King's most memorable achievement: his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963."
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 09:03 PM EST [Link]
~ CON-CON RUNNING UNOPPOSED: According to this report, no candidates have filed to run against Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) in 2004. This just goes to show that constitutional conservatives can win without abandoning constitutional government or their principles. Via LewRockwell.com's blog.
Posted by antle @ 08:41 PM EST [Link]
~ SCOLDING?: The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said today that it will "scold" Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel for damaging a piece of art work that depicts a Palestinian suicide bomber.
In the piece, a boat floats in a rectangular basin filled with red water, carrying a portrait of Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat. Jaradat attacked a restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa in October, blowing herself up and killing 21 others.
In news footage from Reuters television, Israeli Ambassador Zvi Mazel pulled out electrical wires attached to the artwork, sending a spotlight crashing to the ground. He was asked to leave.
Mazel told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he didn't cut or rip the electrical wires but unplugged electrical projectors that provided lighting to the display. He told Haaretz it was an act of protest.
I'm kind of torn about this. I can understand Mazel's anger, heck I might done the same thing myself, but I don't like works of art -- even very objectionable ones -- to be damaged.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:03 PM EST [Link]
Friday, January 16, 2004 NO LEFTY ADS DURING SUPERBOWL: CBS has rejected ads by PETA and Moveon.org on the grounds they do not accept advocacy advertising.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:55 PM EST [Link]
~ YELLOWCAKE LIKELY FROM IRAQ: The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed today that the scrap metal that has tested positive for yellowcake likely came from Iraq.
The material likely dates back before the first Gulf War but its existence underlines that something was going on at some point.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:48 PM EST [Link]
~ ABOUT TIME: George W. Bush today appointed Charles Pickering to a federal appeals court, bypassing the Senate. The recess appointment is in effect until the next Congress takesover in 2005.
Posted by steve @ 05:12 PM EST [Link]
~ DEMS TO ENJOY THEIR OWN MEDICINE: The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to block a Republican-led redistricting in Texas that could cost Democrats some seats.
The justices will announce later this year whether they will consider an appeal from congressional Democrats and others who claim the map dilutes minority voting strength. In the meantime, they rejected an emergency appeal that sought to stop the state from using the new boundaries in this year's elections.
The districts were approved by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature in a special session following months of partisan bickering, highlighted by two out-of-state walkouts by Democrats.
I'm not a big fan of jerrymandering by any political party -- even if I support them directly with a vote -- but the Democrats have been playing around with electoral boundaries for years in an effort to get rid of Republicans. If this holds up it will simply be a case of the Democrats being forced to swallow their own medicine.
Posted by steve @ 04:14 PM EST [Link]
~ NO RUN FOR HARRIS: Kathleen Harris has announced today that she will not run for the U.S. Senate in Florida this year. No big surprise. After the White House all but endorsed former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez it pretty well spelled the end of her effort.
Posted by steve @ 04:09 PM EST [Link]
~
GOD HAS TOUCHED ME: Back on November 27, during a Thursday Evening Quarterback I evinced my love for one Micaela Johnson, a cheerleader with the best looking squad of any sport, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It was quite a surprise when I checked my email today find out that Micaela wrote in! Thanks Micaela, you made my day! I have a friend who lives and dies by the Cowboys and he'll be quite jealous about this.
I reiterate what I said in November...I would gladly fight wars if anyone from that squad asked.
Posted by steve @ 03:34 PM EST [Link]
~ ON SPACE: Charles Krauthammer has some interesting thoughts on George W. Bush's call to go to the moon and Mars in today's WaPo.
As for the Kennedy stuff, the Bush proposal has less to do with a vision of man's destiny than with a totally dysfunctional government agency. NASA gave us the glory of Apollo, then spent the next three decades twirling around in space in low Earth orbit studying zero-G nausea.
It's crazy, and it might have gone on forever had it not been for the Columbia tragedy. Columbia made painfully clear what some of us have been saying for years: It is not only pointless to continue orbiting endlessly around the Earth; it is ridiculously expensive and indefensibly risky.
The president's proposal is a reasonable, measured reconfiguration of the manned space program. True, he could not go all the way. Binding agreements with other countries made it impossible for him to scrap the space station -- a financial sinkhole whose only purpose is its own existence. But he is for phasing it down and for retiring the shuttle within six years.
That frees up huge amounts of NASA money to do what is useful and exciting: going to other worlds. For this generation, the only alternative to wandering about in low Earth orbit -- other than the Luddite alternative of giving up manned flight completely -- is to return to the moon. And this time, stay there.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:39 PM EST [Link]
~ LIFE AFTER SADDAM: Interesting story in today's Christian Science Monitor about the mental adjustments Iraqis are facing and making about life after Saddam Hussein.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:40 AM EST [Link]
~ SERIOUSLY, LET IT DIE ALREADY: It just goes to prove that Internet economics haven't completely died. Jann Wenner, chieftain of long in the tooth Rolling Stone, and John Warnock, co-chairman of Adobe Systems, announced Thursday they would pump another $800 000 into Salon, the magazine that couldn't earn money if you could grow it.
As part of the alliance with Mr. Wenner, Salon and Rolling Stone, each known for liberal political leanings, will collaborate on a series of articles about the presidential election. "I really like what they have been doing over the years," Mr. Wenner said. "I have been impressed with their journalistic drive and energy. And given that we are gearing up our political coverage, we thought they would be a good partner."
David Talbot, the site's chief executive and editor in chief, said, "This is all part of Salon ramping up its political coverage in a major way for the coming election." In addition to the collaborations with Rolling Stone, Salon has hired Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, as a consultant and columnist.
There were so many irrelevant people mentioned in this blog entry I almost burned myself out.
Read on. (NYT, Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 12:21 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 15, 2004 WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT YELLOWCAKE?: A recycling company in Rotterdam has found what is believed to be uranium oxide -- AKA yellowcake -- in a shipment of scrap steel believed to be from Iraq.
I thought Tony Blair and the British were lying about that...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:02 PM EST [Link]
~ MAN, I WISH I HAD CNBC: The New York Times talks to Dennis Miller, whose new show launches in about two weeks.
"People say I've slid to the right," Mr. Miller said in his office at the NBC Studios in Burbank, speaking in his rat-a-tat-tat style. "Well, can you blame me? One of the biggest malfeasances of the left right now is the mislabeling of Hitler. Quit saying this guy is Hitler," he said, referring to Mr. Bush. "Hitler is Hitler. That's the quintessential evil in the history of the universe, and we're throwing it around on MoveOn.org to win a contest. That's grotesque to me."
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 06:46 PM EST [Link]
~ LIBERTY TAKES A BLOW IN D.C.: A federal judge yesterday upheld a District of Columbia law that prohibits the ownership of handguns and places strict conditions on other types of firearms.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton dismissed the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs argued that the 28-year-old law violated their Second Amendment right to own guns. The D.C. law prohibits ownership or possession of handguns and requires that others, such as shotguns, be kept unloaded, disassembled or equipped with trigger locks.
Walton ruled that the Second Amendment is not a broad-based right of gun ownership.
"The Second Amendment does not confer an individual a right to possess firearms. Rather, the Amendment's objective is to ensure the vitality of state militias," Walton wrote.
Walton is probably a big admirer of Michael Bellesilses.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:43 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: If you live in Kitchener/Waterloo, feel free to pick up today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record. On today's op-ed page I argue that Canada must participate in the American ballistic missile defense shield. Don't live in KW? Fear not, merely click on "More" and you can read it.
[more]
Posted by steve @ 12:18 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU WON'T BE MISSED: This won't be of much importance to our American readers but a well-known Liberal Party MP, former cabinet minister and two-time loser in leadership races, may be switching over to the socialist NDP.
Sheila Copps confirmed Wednesday that she has talked to NDP leader Jack Layton and says she is keeping the "lines of communication open" about switching over if she is prevented from running as a Liberal in her Hamilton riding.
Copps, who billed herself as the champion of left-wing, socially progressive Liberals during the leadership race, could play havoc with Liberal hopes in the riding if she jumps to the NDP.
A legend in Hamilton, she could conceivably win for the New Democrats, who have ran run a distant second to her in the past. Or she could split the traditional Liberal vote with Valeri to allow a Conservative win.
Copps, the annoying yappy little dog of Canadian politics, could probably win in her riding even as a socialist. Back a few years ago she resigned after breaking a pledge to push for the elimination of the hated Goods and Services Tax and won her seat back in a byelection. The rest of the country truly seems to dislike her but in Hamilton...or at least her riding...she is a minor deity. That said, I doubt she will be missed in a Liberal Party that seems to be trying to position itself as a centrist force under Paul Martin.
Posted by steve @ 02:05 AM EST [Link]
~ A DIFFERENT KIND OF EMPIRE: Interesting set of articles over at the Christian Science Monitor today on the notion of the United States as an empire. Military power, economics and culture are examined.
Posted by steve @ 01:55 AM EST [Link]
~ REALITY BITES: Well the first tree has been felled. CNN reports that Carol Moseley Braun will drop out of the Democratic race later today. She will throw her support, which is funny because she had none, behind Howard Dean.
"It's true. Carol felt like she had done what she needed to do," a Democratic source said. "She did herself a lot of good in this race.
"She ran a good race and now she felt like it was time to hand it over to someone who can win. Those are the feelings that were expressed to me this evening."
Well, all of you who picked Braun in Mark Steyn's "Dem*olition Derby" should be pleased.
Posted by steve @ 01:48 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 14, 2004 THE PASSION OF CHRIST TO OPEN ON 2000 SCREENS: A spokesman for Mel Gibson announced today that "The Passion of Christ" will open on about 2 000 screens next month, equivalent to a major studio release.
Read on.
Back in September 2003, the peerless Jeff Snyder examined the movie for ESR and what it means. You can read that article here.
Posted by steve @ 08:11 PM EST [Link]
~ WOMEN'S RIGHTS TAKES HISTORIC STEP FORWARD IN MIDDLE EAST: For the first time, terrorist group Hamas employed a female suicide bomber. The attack at the Erez border crossing separating Israel and northern Gaza killed at least four Israelis.
Israel Radio and the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz quoted Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Gad Shamni, commander of the army's Gaza Division, as saying when the bomber reached the area where Palestinian workers are inspected prior to entry into Israel, she told security personnel that she had a metal plate in her leg, which could set off an alarm.
"Because she was a woman, a female soldier was sent for, to inspect her," Shamni said. "While she was waiting for the arrival of the woman soldier, [the bomber] apparently succeeded in penetrating a meter or two into the inspection hall, and blew herself up."
Who says progress doesn't occur in the Middle East?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:48 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU'LL EXCUSE ME FOR LAUGHING: There are plenty of smart liberal comics out there -- no really, it's true! -- but a proposed liberal radio network has decided to hire the most boring one they could find. You guessed it. Al Franken, who makes Charles Grodin look like an excitable host -- and isn't as funny, has been signed to do a daily three-hour radio program that will anchor the network's schedule.
The time slot of this show? Right up against Rush Limbaugh. Even if I was a communist I'd rather listen to Rush.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:10 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 13, 2004 NEW BLOGGER IN THE RANKS!: One of ESR's first contributors, Steve Farrell, has joined the ranks of Musings! Welcome Steve and don't worry if we haze you a bit...
Posted by steve @ 08:20 PM EST [Link]
~ HOW TO AFFECT PEACEFUL CHANGE IN IRAN: If you have access to Iranian satellite TV or radio there will be an interesting program on Sunday, January 18. The program will see a plan for the peaceful removal of the Islamic Regime of Iran announced.
The program starts at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST from NITV studios in Los Angeles and will last for 6 hours, including a fundraising segment to support the plan. Other media who have confirmed the live broadcast of this program include Pars TV, Radio Sedaye Iran, Radio Yaran, Radio Sedaye Emrooz, Rangarang TV, Apadana TV, and Lahzeh TV.
This program can also be seen live via the Internet at www.IranRadioTV.com who will provide a free link on that day. Spread the word!
Posted by steve @ 07:39 PM EST [Link]
~ CAN IRAQ BE DEMOCRATIC?: George F. Will has a great piece in the Winter 2004 edition of City Journal on what it takes to create a democratic society, specifically in Iraq.
Last July, Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, said: It is a “myth” that “our attachment to freedom is a product of our culture,” and he added: “Ours are not Western values; they are the universal values of the human spirit. And anywhere, anytime people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of the secret police.”
That assertion is important. But is it true? Everyone everywhere does not share “our attachment to freedom.” Freedom is not even understood the same way everywhere, let alone valued the same way relative to other political goods such as equality, security, and piety. Does Blair really believe that our attachment to freedom is not the product of complex and protracted acculturation by institutions and social mores that have evolved over centuries—the centuries that it took to prepare the stony social ground for seeds of democracy?
I have to admit that I'm one of those cats who believes that democracy, in one form or another, can be exported but everytime I read an essay like Will's I have to admit my faith is shaken. He makes some very good points.
Read on.
The rest of the new issue is fat like a Christmas goose. Make sure to also check out James Q. Wilson's "What Makes a Terrorist?". Check out the entire issue here.
Posted by steve @ 07:20 PM EST [Link]
~ FIGHTING DOUBLE STANDARDS: A campaign launched by ESR contributor Glenn Sacks has resulted in a major retailer removing shirts that had slogans like "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them".
The shirts are distributed by David &Goliath, which says the shirts are among their bestsellers. FOX news columnist Wendy McElroy criticized the company in a recent column and provided a list of offensive slogans taken from the company's website and its T-shirts. These include: "Boys Lie -- Make Them Cry," "Boys are Full of It -- Fling Poop at Them," and "Boys Lie -- Poke Them in the Eye."
Wow, imagine if someone made a doll that said "Math is hard!" Imagine the controversy!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:08 PM EST [Link]
~ IF YOU LOVE IT SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING?: Earlier today I posted an article about the "moderate Middle East", now comes a report that the autocratic regimes over there really love democracy. No seriously.
Addressing the San'a Inter-Governmental Regional Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and the Role of the International Criminal Court, the biggest gathering of its kind ever held in the Middle East, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh hailed democracy as a "rescue ship."
"Democracy is the choice of the modern age for all people of the world and the rescue ship for political regimes," Mr. Saleh told more than 600 delegates from 40 countries and international organizations, including the European Union, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the International Criminal Court.
One reason the San'a conference was almost universally welcomed by the Arab world was because it was an initiative of the European Union, rather than of the United States. The U.S. delegation was low-key.
Funny thing, the U.S. has done more to bring democracy to Muslims than either the European Union, which is content dealing with dictators, and Muslims themselves. If the Middle East is so in love with democracy, why is Yemen one of the few places in the Middle East that has actually elected its own leaders by popular vote -- though also one that extended Saleh's term from five to seven years after the election?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:46 PM EST [Link]
~ O'NEILL BACKTRACKS: He should be careful, he might trip on something...like his earlier statements.
He described the reaction to Suskind's book as a "red meat frenzy" and said people should read his comments in context, particularly about the Iraq war.
"People are trying to say that I said the president was planning war in Iraq early in the administration. Actually there was a continuation of work that had been going on in the Clinton administration with the notion that there needed to be a regime change in Iraq."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:36 PM EST [Link]
~ THE MODERATE MIDDLE EAST?: The Christian Science Monitor reports, somewhat optimistically in my opinion, that the leaders of the Middle East are trying something new these days: talking to each other.
...Libya has said it will abandon plans to pursue weapons of mass destruction. Iran has promised to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities. Syria has announced that it is again willing to talk peace with Israel.
Egypt and Iran are ending an era of mutual mistrust. So are Turkey and Syria. Saudi Arabia is allowing unprecedented internal debate.
"It's the end of radicalism," says Abdel Monem Said, director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in ter for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "You have a general sense of accommodation taking place in the region."
If this is true, I wonder how much of it is the result of two wars recently fought by the United States...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:38 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 12, 2004 SONGS OF PRAISE: Peter Vere, blogging machine, has launched his latest project: Songs for Bush. Apparently he came across a web site entitled Songs for Dean and decided to respond with a site containing songs and lyrics in support of Dubya.
Find it here.
Posted by steve @ 07:28 PM EST [Link]
~ ONE WAY OR ANOTHER: John Rowland is going to leave the Connecticut govenorship. The question of whether he prefers to leave on his own or be impeached is up to him.
Posted by antle @ 06:23 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece on the oxymoron that is big-government conservatism running today in the American Conservative Union's new webzine Conservative Batteline On-Line.
Posted by antle @ 02:53 PM EST [Link]
~ THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE CONTINUES: Stephen M. Bainbridge has a good piece over at TechCentralStation concerning the debate over Dubya's immigration proposal last week. Bainbridge says the plan is worthwhile for several reasons.
Read on.
Of course, don't forget ESR's coverage of the matter. Both Keith D. Cummings (sort of pro) and W. James Antle III (very much con) addressed the issue this week.
Posted by steve @ 01:37 PM EST [Link]
~ SABINE HEROLD INTERVIEWED: The Atlasphere interviews French activist Sabine Herold, the young lass who gained international attention last year when the organization she belongs to led two anti-government-union rallies in Paris.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:28 PM EST [Link]
~ PEOPLE READING AND TUNING INTO ALTERNATIVE NEWS SOURCES: Alternative news sources are gaining in influence. Although personal experience has led me to question how informed people who get their news from "The Daily Show" really are, it's good to see people are listening to sources other than the standard mainstream press. A little competition is a good thing. Let a thousand flowers bloom, I say.
Posted by antle @ 08:22 AM EST [Link]
~ ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES: If Iran's hardliners thought they could simply disqualify a large number of moderate candidates and simply hold their parliamentary election without any protest, they were very wrong.
As reported earlier, Iran's Guardian Council disqualified hundreds of moderate candidates, including 80 sitting lawmakers.
The council, which is comprised of conservatives picked by Iran's supreme leader, barred more than 80 incumbent lawmakers, all reformists, from seeking another term in next month's parliamentary elections, the news agency said.
In all, about 900 of the 1,700 people who wanted to contest seats in Tehran have been disqualified, members of parliament said.
In response, all of Iran's provincial governors have reportedly threatened to resign in protest.
Posted by steve @ 02:14 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK - DIVISIONAL WEEKEND EDITION: Perhaps in the future we will reserve the use of the label "team of destiny" until after the playoffs are over. This year's team of destiny, Green Bay, lived and died by Brett Favre and that was certainly true Sunday. Although he played a good game, a bizarre pass he lofted in overtime was intercepted and led to the game winning field goal by Philadelphia's David Akers. Many people ignored the fact that the home team usually wins when these two teams met and they paid for it if they had money on the line. Speaking of overtime, St. Louis learned how dangerous the fifth quarter is for the favoured team. Although I didn't think the Rams would go all the way, I did figure they'd make it to the final four.
Well, at any rate, I picked St. Louis, New England, Indianapolis and Green Bay last weekend. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't have enough money to place a government approved wager on the entire weekend. Next weekend?
Indianapolis at New England is a tough game but I like the Colts. Over the past couple of months you could detect a very subtle change in the team and whenever I used the term "team of destiny" I always meant the Colts. Peyton Manning looks like a cat who has been winning in the playoffs for years and that whole team on both sides of the ball is playing at their peak. Not to take anything away from New England, but I think Indianapolis comes into this game with it theirs to lose. As much as I admire Carolina's gumption to win in St. Louis, Philadelphia will beat them.
I guess I should register my SuperBowl pick now: Indianapolis vs. Philadelphia. Indianapolis wins 30-17.
Posted by steve @ 12:55 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 11, 2004 DUBYA RUINED EVERYTHING: Scrappleface has a funny tidbit about Paul O'Neill on how Dubya ruined all of Bill Clinton's carefully planned out effort to topple Saddam Hussein.
Make sure to also check out the story "Clueless in Command: Bush May Be Autistic Savant" here.
Nobody does it better than Scott...
Posted by steve @ 05:23 PM EST [Link]
~ SHAIDLE ON TV: ESR friend and blogger extraordinaire Kathy Shaidle will be on Canadian television tonight. Tonight at 7PM EST, she will be on Behind the Story, a CTS (Crossroads) show. That's Cable 36, Channel 9 in Toronto.
Posted by steve @ 04:00 PM EST [Link]
~ MEANEST NFL FRANCHISE IN THE WORLD?: According to this story about the Tennessee/New England game which I watched at a bar tonight: "Barbeque grills typically used for tailgating in the parking lots were pressed into duty as space heaters, and free coffee was poured for those who dared to make a party of it. The team gave out hand-warmers to the first 10,000 people entering the gates, and lifted the ban on blankets and sleeping bags."
Woah, are you telling me that the Patriots have a rule that fans are not allowed to bring blankets or sleeping bags to keep themselves warm during an autumn or winter game? That's just plain...well...cold. Jim, I have even more respect for you if you sat through one of those cold games with this ban in effect.
Posted by steve @ 06:43 AM EST [Link]
~ HE'S FULL OF SURPRISES: Paul O'Neill, fired as Treasury Secretary back in 2002, says that the Dubya Amin was planning the invasion of Iraq before 9/11.
"From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told CBS, according to excerpts released Saturday by the network. "For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap."
Not surprisingly, the usual suspects pile on.
Read on.
[Update - 3:49am] Instapundit has a series of posts dealing with Paul O'Neill's "revelations."
Posted by steve @ 03:28 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 10, 2004 CHEMICAL WEAPONS REPORTEDLY FOUND IN IRAQ: Danish soldiers have found what appears to be an old stash of chemical weapons in southern Iraq.
The 36 120mm mortar rounds appeared to have been buried for at least 10 years, the army said.
All showed traces of blister gases, the army said, a group of chemical compounds which include mustard gas.
US officials confirmed the apparent find and said the weapons were probably left over from the 1980-88 war on Iran.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:35 PM EST [Link]
~ A GOOD WAY TO START THE YEAR: A new Fox New poll shows that Dubya's numbers are improving and that even the number of Democrats behind Bush has risen.
In this week's FOX News poll, a majority of the public approves of the job Bush is doing as president and he easily bests several Democratic contenders in election matchups. The poll of registered voters, conducted January 7-8 by Opinion Dynamics Corporation, finds that 58 percent of Americans approve of Bush's overall job performance, up from 52 percent last month.
The president's higher rating is helped by increased approval among women, which is up eight points and now stands at 55 percent. While approval among Republicans remains constant at 86 percent, approval among Democrats is up five points from last month and currently stands at 29 percent.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:10 AM EST [Link]
~ GEPHARDT’S MISSION SEMI-IMPOSSIBLE: Being the political geek that I am, I like to compare the Democratic field of 2004 to the Republicans’ 1996 field. Howard Dean is standing in for Pat Buchanan while Dennis Kucinich is reprising the role of Alan Keyes. But the Dems’ problem is that the guy who ought to be their Bob Dole, Dick Gephardt, has seriously dropped the ball.
Is there anyway for Gephardt to win this thing? It’s a long shot and I doubt he’s up to it. He desperately needs money and momentum. In the shorter term, he faces two huge stumbling blocks: (1) The Iowa caucuses are a must-win for him against the ascendant Dean; (2) Even if he wins Iowa, the only state he won in 1988, he needs to convince Democrats that this wasn’t a one-time fluke victory by capitalizing on this win to rack up future wins. In order for Gephardt to be the nominee, he needs to win Iowa (preferably by a comfortable margin, but at this point in the expectations game maybe even a narrow win will do), at least manage to avoid a disaster in New Hampshire by finishing no lower than fifth place and breaking 10 percent of the vote and then go on to win impressive victories in states like South Carolina and Michigan. If he can do this, Dean’s inevitability will be shattered and he can begin to gain new voters and donors. He can seize front-runner status with wins in the South and Midwest, and eventually elsewhere, despite anger over his Iraq war stance.
But this is a tall order. In order to pull off the Iowa caucuses, Gephardt hasn’t spent that much time on the ground in New Hampshire. That’s why it will be hard for him to do particularly well there, even coming off of a win from Iowa. Will he still have enough momentum left from winning Iowa to help propel him to victory in, say, Michigan if he has already turned in an at best middling performance in New Hampshire since then? It’s hard to say and it’s hard to do. It’s certainly possible, but I don’t sense that Gephardt will be able to do it.
Posted by antle @ 01:30 AM EST [Link]
~ CLARK TO BE THE ANTI-DEAN?: Rich Lowry has an interesting column about Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign, which now seems to be gaining ground in New Hampshire and some national polls.
In Howard Dean, the Democrats have an undisputed front-runner for their nomination. What hasn’t been established yet is who will be his main challenger. It no longer appears that the top tier is going to remain clumped together separated by just a few points in national polls and trading primary victories back and forth; the field will winnow and somebody is going to have to face Dean down. Richard Gephardt, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and even John Edwards could conceivably play this role. But the candidate with the best shot is Clark. If Clark bypasses Kerry in New Hampshire to land second place, look for much of the media – some quarters of which are beginning to fear their creation from Vermont – to proclaim him the winner of the expectations game, especially if he finishes less than 10 points behind Dean.
But that of course doesn’t mean that Clark will win the nomination. Unexpected new sensation challengers frequently give the front-runner a brief scare only to become second-place finishers in the end. Think of Gary Hart in 1984, Jesse Jackson in 1988 (and arguably both Bob Dole and Pat Robertson on the Republican side), Paul Tsongas in 1992, Pat Buchanan in 1996 and both John McCain and Bill Bradley in 2000. All of them looked briefly like they might pull the rug out from under the candidate who had up to that point been the probable nominee; not one of them actually won. So the odds still heavily favor Dean. But if anybody is going to stop him, it is going to be the person who leaves the early primaries as his main challenger. And at the very least, Clark can make the race more interesting.
Posted by antle @ 01:05 AM EST [Link]
Friday, January 9, 2004 IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S DEMEANING: (Via reader and Alaska's own Cody E.) The Daily Telegraph has run a photo taken the night of Saddam Hussein's capture that hasn't been seen before. It shows him, beard and all, with an American soldier posing for the camera.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:41 PM EST [Link]
~ SHE'S GONE...DEAL WITH IT: A couple of hundred Canadians, angry that the Progressive Conservative Party has been disbanded and merged with the Canadian Alliance to create the new Conservative Party of Canada has announced they are reforming the party.
One slight problem...90 per cent of Tories voted for the merger and the new party holds the intellectual property rights to the name of the old party.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:49 PM EST [Link]
~ BURNING BRIDGES: Paul O'Neill, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary fired by George W. Bush back in December 2002, has few kind words to say about his former boss. Bush during cabinet meetings, he said, was like "a blind man in a room full of deaf people."
I guess O'Neill doesn't expect to ever be named to a government post again.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:41 PM EST [Link]
~ SADDAM MUM: A British official stated today that Saddam Hussein isn't doing much talking to his interrogators but that the documents found in a briefcase during his capture last month have been a goldmine.
"He has not talked himself, but what came out of the papers found with him led to further operations, which led to further information, which led to further operations," said the official, who is closely involved in British activity in Iraq. "It has by no means ended the problem ... but it has not been a bad few weeks for the American forces."
Read on.
[Update - 8:04pm] The Pentagon has declared Hussein a POW.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
~ I THOUGHT ONLY BUSH BELIEVED THAT AND WE ALL KNOW HE LIED: Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said today that during a recent visit to Portugal former U.S. President Bill Clinton told him he believed that Iraq possessed WMDs.
"When Clinton was here recently he told me he was absolutely convinced, given his years in the White House and the access to privileged information which he had, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction until the end of the Saddam regime," he said in an interview with Portuguese cable news channel SIC Noticias.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:31 PM EST [Link]
~ STEYN AND DOWD WIN AWARDS: RealClear Politics has handed out its 1st Annual RCP Op-Eddy Awards and Mark Steyn has been named best columnist. Let's just say Maureen Dowd's award is less than positive.
The late Michael Kelly, killed during the Iraq War, also receives a well-deserved nod.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:25 PM EST [Link]
~ THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL SAFER
While the Transportation Safety Agency drags its feet complying with the law to arm airline pilots, federal agents are allowed to carry their concealed weapons aboard domestic flights. These agents include such respected law enforcement types as EPA agents, bureaucrats from the Department of Education and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The story is reported at World Net Daily.
Besides the obvious focus of this piece, the immediate questions that spring to my mind are: Why does an EPA agent, or a Dept. of Education bureaucrat, or FDIC flunky need to carry a gun as part of his job? Are there a lot of hostile endangered species? Are schools dangerous places for DoEd reps? Are FDIC weenies worried about bank holdups?
I would be willing to bet that I have significantly more training and experience in handling weapons that 99% of these federal "agents". Yet federal, state, and local laws severely restrict where I can carry my weapon, concealed or otherwise. Trying to carry on board an airplane to protect myself is a straight shot to prison.
Think about it. If terrorists try to take the plane you are on, won't you just feel a whole lot better knowing that the guy next to you might be an armed education bureaucrat or bank regulator?
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 12:31 PM EST [Link]
~ MAGGIE ON MARRIAGE: Maggie Gallagher is brilliant on the devaluation of marriage, of which the drive for same-sex marriage is just one part. Read on.
Posted by antle @ 11:35 AM EST [Link]
~ CHILL OUT, FELLOW CONSERVATIVES: My friend and past ESR contributor Lawrence Henry weighs in on behalf of President Bush's amnesty proposal over at The American Spectator On-Line, arguing that conservatives ought to think it over before reflexively shouting "Deport 'em all!" You know, the sort of thing that conservatives like me would say.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 11:24 AM EST [Link]
~ QUESTIONS THAT WILL NEVER BE ASKED: Radley Balko has some interesting questions for the Democratic presidential candidates.
Posted by antle @ 09:20 AM EST [Link]
~ RIGHT TRASHES BUSH ON AMNESTY: Steve Sailer, himself an eloquent opponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants, has a report for UPI detailing the hostile reaction from conservatives to the president's plan. I'm getting e-mails from readers who say they won't vote to reelect Bush because of it. As destructive as I think the president's "reform" and our entire post-1965 immigration policy is, I don't share this view in light of the existing political conditions. A President Dean, for example, would be equally hare-brained on immigration while raising taxes, aggressively promotion abortion, appointing rabid leftists to the judiciary and defanging the war on terror.
Having said that, I think Bush and Karl Rove ought to really carefully ponder what they are doing here. This could really demoralize and outrage the conservative base, just like his father's 1990 tax increase. If that is the reaction we end up getting, remember: you read it here first.
Posted by antle @ 08:32 AM EST [Link]
~ DEAN WAS RIGHT ON ONE THING: Proving that timing is everything, NBC aired Thursday night some footage from a few years ago with some very illuminating comments by Howard Dean.
Four years ago, Howard Dean denounced the Iowa caucuses as "dominated by special interests," saying on a Canadian television show that they "don't represent the centrist tendencies of the American people, they represent the extremes."
Videotapes of the show were broadcast on the NBC Nightly News on Thursday, less than two weeks before the Jan. 19 caucuses, the first contest of the Democratic nominating race. The tapes show Dr. Dean arguing that the lengthy caucus process in which neighbors gather to debate their preferences is inconvenient for ordinary people.
"Say I'm a guy who's got to work for a living, and I've got kids," he said on the show on Jan. 15, 2000. "On a Saturday, is it easy for me to go cast a ballot and spend 15 minutes doing it, or do I have to sit in a caucus for eight hours?"A moment later, he added, "I can't stand there and listen to everyone else's opinion for eight hours about how to fix the world."`
The excerpts shown on NBC also show Dr. Dean saying in December, 2000, "George Bush is, I believe, in his soul a moderate," and adding about those thinking that Mr. Bush's presidency would be a one-term one, "that is going to be a mistake."
Dean is right about the one-term thing...especially if Dean is the Democratic nominee.
Read on (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:59 AM EST [Link]
~ IT'S STUPID COLD OUTSIDE: It's ungodly cold outside right now in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, galactic home of ESR. The temperature is currently -28C/-18F with a windchill of -41C/-41.8F. It's so cold that all the structures in my neighbourhood are resounding with loud cracks, as if the buildings are shivering from the temperature.
The scary part, it's supposed to get even colder (-46C/-50.8F with the windchill) as the night goes on...egad.
Posted by steve @ 01:08 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 8, 2004 SELF-PROMO ALERT. If you are up at 11:00 p.m. (EST), tonight, and get CNN, Lou Dobbs will be reading the letter I sent him opining about President Bush's amnesty proposal.
Posted by izzy @ 09:10 PM EST [Link]
~ IT WAS INEVITABLE: Back in March I railed against the use of "embedded" to describe journalists in Iraq along with the troops. Repeat after me, major media, they are called "war correspondents." If it was good enough for Ernie Pyle it's good enough for the lackwits reporting today.
Well, the only real thing that the media learned about reporting in Iraq was to use the word embedded. Even if it's covering politicians on the campaign trail in the United States. God help us.
This now joins major pet peeves that include tagging every shot as "Live" even if the reporter is standing on a street as a different backdrop and renaming "WeatherCenter" to "StormCenter"...oh yeah, and that bias thing that keeps coming up.
Posted by steve @ 07:32 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: The New Republic likes him, but those further to the left - the people who will decide the Democratic presidential contest - don't. I have a piece on Joe Lieberman and the left today in the American Spectator On-Line.
Posted by antle @ 05:36 PM EST [Link]
~ POWELL RESPONDS TO CARNEGIE REPORT: In response to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, billed as a "non-partisan, respected group" that was opposed to the war (of course it is), Colin Powell today said that he stands by his speech to the UN given last February and the Bush administration's decision to go to war.
"This game is still unfolding," he told reporters.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:40 PM EST [Link]
~ NOT A POPULAR VIEW TODAY AMONG CONSERVATIVES: Andrew Sullivan thinks George W. Bush's illegal immigrant amnesty -- and face it, that's precisely what it was -- is the best thing since philly cheesesteak pizza. A view, I would wager, not shared by many other conservatives.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:13 PM EST [Link]
~ OPPPSS!: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one that opposed the war in Iraq, released a report today stating that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Bush administration officials likely pushed U.S. intelligence assessors to conform with its view the country posed an impending danger, said one of the authors of the study.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:11 PM EST [Link]
~ TNR LOVES JOE: The New Republic announced Wednesday that it has endorsed Joe Lieberman as its pick for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Hundreds of millions of Americans stifled a yawn and tried to remember if Banana Republic published a magazine and The New Republic sold clothes.
Seriously though, if ESR was liberal we'd probably do the same...we don't agree with the old boy on everything but he's the best out of that motley lot.
Posted by steve @ 12:08 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, January 7, 2004 THE ANNUAL BATTLE BEGINS: I and David Janes will repeat our battle from last year in an attempt to prove who lives in the more God-forsaken -- as measured by temperature -- city: Steve in Sudbury or David in Toronto. David files his first report today here with a response from me in his comments section.
-11C/12.2F! David...I wore shorts when it was that warm in Sudbury!
Posted by steve @ 11:54 PM EST [Link]
~ GOLDBERG ENDORSES DEAN: Conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg has come out in support of Howard Dean for the Democratic nomination. Relax, it's not what you think.
I've largely decided that I want Dean to get the nomination. In my more patriotic moments, I realize how selfish this is. As an American, I should hope that the best, most qualified, candidate gets the Democratic nomination on the chance he might become president.
In that sense, Joe Lieberman should be my guy. But he's got no chance of winning the nomination. Richard Gephardt probably wouldn't be a disaster except on economic issues. Meanwhile, John Kerry is the most incoherent major presidential contender of my lifetime, so, frankly, I have no idea what kind of president he'd make. Maybe, if he achieved his lifelong dream of being president, he'd just sit in the Oval Office shooting at TV sets like Elvis.
In fact, with the exceptions of Kerry, Carol Mosley-Braun, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton, I think Dean is probably the worst choice of a pretty awful field. It reminds me of that 1960 bumper sticker that read: "Kennedy and Nixon: Thank God Only One of Them Can Win!"
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:47 PM EST [Link]
~ EXPOSING THE REAL IRAN: If you really want to know what's happening in Iran than you should catch PBS' Frontline Thursday evening at 9:00pm EST.
Canadian journalist Jane Kokan will expose and investigate many aspects of the Islamic Clerical Regime's human rights abuses and brutality, which it utilizes to remain in power.You can watch a promo and read more here. Also, starting Monday January 12, PBS will be providing the whole report via streaming video on their web site.
Posted by steve @ 11:25 PM EST [Link]
~ MERRY CHRISTMAS!: No, you read that right and there isn't an error in the blogging software spitting up old entries. Today is Orthodox Christmas for millions of Christians whose versions of Christianity follow the old Julian calender when it comes to religious holidays, which generally includes Orthodox Serbians and Russians (among several others), the monks of Mount Athos in Greece and Catholic/Orthodox Ukranians.
So in the the spririt of the holiday I shall be taking a break today and I'll see you all tomorrow.
Merry Christmas!
Posted by steve @ 01:06 PM EST [Link]
~ PARTY INSIDERS LINE UP BEHIND DEAN: I'm actually quite surprised by this: Dean apparently leads the race for super-delegates. These are the party leaders and officials who attend the Democratic National Convention without being chosen through the primaries and caucuses.
This is the group where Dean should be weakest, given party elders' concerns about his viability in November. If this is true, it shows that the party establishment has reconciled itself to Dean as the nominee and has decided the impact of stopping him would be worse than letting him stand against Bush in the fall. Given this, I don't see how he can lose the nomination.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 10:55 AM EST [Link]
~ LEVANT DISCUSSES NEW CONSERVATIVE MAGAZINE: Western writer Ezra Levant was interviewed about the Western Standard magazine -- Canada's forthcoming conservative magazine -- on Don Newman's national TV show, "Politics".
You can watch the six-minute segment by visiting this page, and then clicking on the Tuesday afternoon segment. Scroll ahead 40 minutes.
Posted by steve @ 01:07 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, January 6, 2004 COLUMBIA REACHES MARS: (via Jay Reding) NASA included a beautiful memorial to the crew of Shuttle Columbia in the form of a plaque that is attached to the Mars rover Spirit.
Posted by steve @ 06:34 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY NANNY STATES ARE MORE DANGEROUS: Mark Steyn tells readers in Britain why they are in more danger living in a "peaceful" society than are their cousins in the United States.
Well, it's true I subscribe to a gung-ho mentality, but I don't live in a culture of fear. In fact, British friends visiting me in this corner of northern New England from their crime-ridden leafy shires always remark on my blithe unconcern about "home security". I don't have laser alarms, or window locks, or, indeed, a front-door key. Like most of my neighbours, I leave my home unlocked and, when I park the car, I leave the key in the ignition because then you always know where to find it.
I'm able to do this because - and this is where the gung-ho bit comes in - I live in a state with very high rates of gun ownership. In other words, if you're some teen punk and you want to steal my $70 television set, they're likely to be picking bits of your skull out of my wainscoting. But the beauty of this system is that I'm highly unlikely ever to have to blow your head off. The fact that most homeowners are believed to be armed reduces crime, in my neighbourhood, to statistically insignificant levels. Hence, my laconic approach to home security.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:19 PM EST [Link]
~ AFTER BAM: Geesou Atasheen reports the aftermath of the Bam earthquake, particularly the anger at Iran's ruling mullahs. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:43 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT PRETTY WELL TELLS YOU EVERYTHING: (via Brothers Judd Blog) Palestinian groups have refused to take any aid money from the United States because they refuse to sign a pledge that the money will not go to funding terrorist acts.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, which used to receive about $300,000 a year in aid, refused to sign and gave up its funding, said deputy director Faiq Hussein.
"We would like to take funds from them, but without any conditions," Hussein said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:55 AM EST [Link]
~ IRAQ TRIPS CHANGE MINDS: The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story showing that U.S. lawmakers making the trip to Iraq come back voicing even stronger support.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, the lone GOP senator to oppose the war in Iraq in 2002, returned from a two-day visit last October convinced that US action had been justified. Others aghast at President Bush's $87 billion request for reconstructing Iraq last October - atop of a $78 billion request in April - came back committed to voting the full amount. Democrats, who account for a third of 170-plus congressional visits to date, often come back determined to stay and spend what is needed to win the peace.
"It's important to see for yourself and to get some sense of what's going on," says Senator Chafee, who voted for President Bush's $87 billion supplemental request a week after his return from Iraq. He says that his visit convinced him that Iraqis were relieved to see Saddam Hussein toppled.
For Chafee, a telling moment came as an Iraqi passenger in a passing bus gave the military convoy he was riding in a thumbs up. The impromptu gesture struck him. "My head kind of snapped around to see if I saw what I thought I saw, and I did," he says. At another stop, an elderly Iraqi woman signaled the convoy by placing her hand on her heart. "I think it was a gesture of respect," he said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:47 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: You can a read a review I penned of Ada Blackjack: The True Story of Survival in the Arctic at the Christian Science Monitor here.
Posted by steve @ 12:09 AM EST [Link]
Monday, January 5, 2004 SELF-CONGRATULATION IS LIKE MASTERBATION: It may make you feel good but it is an empty pleasure since you have to do it yourself (there goes our family friendly rating). Neil Starkman is apparently a man who loves to congratulate himself. In a Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece that ran today, Starkman says it's bloody obvious why George W. Bush is so popular. It's because his supporters are morons.
What can explain his popularity? Can that many people be enamored of what he has accomplished in Iraq? Of how he has fortified our constitutional freedoms with the USA Patriot Act? Of how he has bolstered our economy? Of how he has protected our environment? Perhaps they've been impressed with the president's personal integrity and the articulation of his grand vision for America?
Is that likely?
Granted, there are certain subsections of the American polity that have substantially benefited from this presidency. Millionaires and charismatic Christians have accrued either material or spiritual fortification from Bush's administration. But surely these two groups are a small minority of the population. What, then, can account for so many people being so supportive of the president?
The answer, I'm afraid, is the factor that dare not speak its name. It's the factor that no one talks about. The pollsters don't ask it, the media don't report it, the voters don't discuss it.
I, however, will blare out its name so that at last people can address the issue and perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it.
It's the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people -- sometimes through no fault of their own -- are just not very bright.
Of course Mr. Starkman isn't one of those stupid people who needs to pass an intelligence test in order to vote because he doesn't like George W. Bush. In the small sad world he lives in, he's defined anything he believes as intelligent and anything the mouth breathers/Republicans believe in as stupid. In his carefully ordered world, the masses are undeserving of the franchise because they don't know how to exercise it responsibly.
Brian Tiemann, the chap who runs the fantastic blog Peeve Farm, addressed this sort of thinking in an article that ran in ESR back in June.
Said Tiemann:
Sure, I've known idiots. But -- and it's only fairly recently that I've come to this conclusion -- I will be the last person to suggest that the majority of people that I've met in the world are stupider than myself.
And yet I seem to be in the minority on that matter.
Conversation with people on the streets of Arcata showed me that whatever else people believed, they were sure that if left to their own devices, Americans -- if given popular control over their own destinies -- would stride confidently off a cliff into a volcano's caldera.
In other words, only the elite were really qualified to make the rules. And who are the elite? Why, the people with the correct ideas, of course. Well, how do we tell whose ideas are correct? C'mon, just look around. Most of the country is made up of proletarian idiots. They watch sports and reality TV, and drink Budweiser and eat McDonald's. They don't care about anything beyond their little day jobs and their doughy wives and screaming kids, and getting to the bar so they can drink themselves into a stupor and get through to the next morning and begin the grind all over again. Think they have any worthwhile ideas of their own?
Read Starkman here.
Posted by steve @ 08:05 PM EST [Link]
~ NINE OUT OF TEN CULTS FAIL: Republicans are cautiously optimistic about a Bush-Dean match up this year but acknowledge that Howard Dean won't be a push over despite the fact that he's a clear underdog against the president.
Dean's momentum has slowed. His Democratic rivals have ganged up on him for suggesting that Americans were no safer with Iraq's Saddam Hussein in captivity and for Dean's implied criticism of some former Clinton initiatives. Still, he remains the clear favorite in the Democratic field.
And those polls show Dean as a substantial underdog in a prospective race against Bush.
Many Democrats hoped a victorious Dean eventually would be able to reposition himself to the center. But his unyielding war opposition may have made that harder.
Bush campaign officials are expected to step up their groundwork and pour money into television spots and into direct mail appeals. They plan to rely heavily on e-mail and the Internet, hoping to beat Dean at his own game.
One Bush campaign strategist says that the e-mail data base that the Bush-Cheney team is developing is at least twice as large as Dean's prized list of names.
But Dean's use of the Internet has extended to more than just generating names and e-mail addresses. It has given him a structure for campaign activity and lifted him to near-cult status among his supporters.
Not that I'm directly comparing the two men but Barry Goldwater also had a cult-like following in 1964 among Republicans. A record 3.9 million Americans actively worked for Goldwater -- twice as many as did for Lyndon Johnson who had a pool twice as big to draw from -- and yet history records a loss for the Republican.
What hurt Goldwater is precisely what is likely to hurt Dean. Goldwater was perceived as being too extreme for the electorate (at least at the time, Goldwater II -- aka Ronald Reagan -- was elected just 26 years later) and suffered party infighting which hobbled his campaign.
The problem with being a cult leader is that you can't deviate from your message for fear of alienating your core constituency and you can't draw in the center because your message is tailored to a different group. Goldwater took the honourable way out and refused to change his message and went down to resounding defeat -- so much so that it was editorialized that the Republican Party could be finished for good. That's the real problem Dean faces: Does he modify his message to appeal to that centre -- one that arguably does not support the things he believes in -- or does he go down fighting with the message that's made him a big underdog?
Although Republicans relish a shattered Democratic Party, I do not. I honestly believe that America needs the Democratic Party if only to keep the Republicans honest. A party that faces no real opposition is one that becomes arrogant and loses its way. What the Democrats need today, and there is no one to occupy this position, is a John F. Kennedy who was at least principled politically. In today's political landscape, a Kennedy Democrat (not faux-Kennedy Democrats like Bill Clinton) would be a powerful check on Republican excess. Howard Dean is not that man. He may be a cult leader, but that rarely translates into election gains.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:35 PM EST [Link]
~ DONATION SCANDAL HELPS REPUBLICANS: AP reports that a donation scandal involving state Democrats in Hawaii has helped Republicans in that liberal state gain office.
The civil and criminal reckoning has also been an embarrassment for some of the state's most influential Democrats and played a role in giving Hawaii its first elected Republican governor in 40 years.
Under state law, individuals can donate no more than $6,000 to gubernatorial candidates and $4,000 to mayoral candidates. Watada found that some businessmen were subverting the law by making donations in other people's names.
Watada's persistence has led to a slew of investigations by Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle, who says he hopes to end a "pay to play culture" that has plagued Hawaii's Democrat-dominated government for years.
The cases involve such things as $10,500 in donations over a five-year period in the names of three modestly paid Chinese-restaurant workers, and a $2,000 donation that supposedly came from a high school student.
The biggest fine was $303,000 levied against engineering executive Michael Matsumoto for allegedly laundering more than $400,000 in illegal contributions to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and other Democrats. Matsumoto, chief executive of SSFM International Inc., which won more than $7 million worth of city contracts, pleaded no contest to funneling money to family members and employees to donate to Harris' campaign and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:08 PM EST [Link]
~ YEAH, I GUESS HE WAS THE VICTIM: Lionel Tate, the boy who horrifically battered a six-year old girl a few years ago and earned himself life in prison signed a plea deal yesterday that will see him leave prison soon, place him under house arrest for a year and probation for a decade.
"It was a hard decision, but my son wants to come home, and I want him home," Kathleen Grossett-Tate said outside the maximum-security juvenile prison in Okeechobee, Florida, where her son was being held. "I'm tired of driving up here every weekend."
His mother always painted Lionel Tate as sort of a victim, sent to prison for merely 'playing' with Tiffany Eunick back in 1999. As Shelley McKinney reported for ESR back in early 2001:
On the coroner's report, the cause of Tiffany's death is listed as "blunt force trauma." Lionel Tate, who has a reputation as a schoolyard bully, injured her little body to the extent that she bled from her mouth, nose, eyes and ears. Her skull was fractured in several places and her ribs were cracked. Part of her brain was flattened inside her head. The beating Lionel Tate gave her was so severe, part of Tiffany's liver broke loose and was floating free inside her body.
Hey, as long as his mother is tired of making the drive to visit her son.
Read the news story here.
Posted by steve @ 04:52 PM EST [Link]
~ THE POLLS, IRAQ AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: Steven Den Beste had a good article up yesterday that I didn't see until today examining how the mainstream media frames the debate over Iraq. Not surprisingly, he finds that despite their efforts, support for what's going on over there remains consistently strong.
That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The media elite have long looked at themselves as the final word on any issue, dismissing anyone in flyover country as being incapable of forming an opinion on the major issues of the day without their help. Personally, I find the average person on the street to be far more informed then any of the media personnel I've worked beside when I worked in that industry. The average person is capable of putting together a coherent picture and coming to a conclusion while the media elite are merely trapped into their perspective and are incapable of breaking out of their box.
Posted by steve @ 04:43 PM EST [Link]
~ EVERY INSTITUTION IS ALWAYS 'SPLIT' ABOUT EVERY ISSUE: The Washington Post has an interesting story about debate in military circles about how to use America's special forces in the war against terrorists.
With Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressuring the Pentagon to take a more aggressive role in tracking down terrorists, military and intelligence officials are engaged in a fierce debate over when and how elite military units should be deployed for maximum effectiveness.
Under Rumsfeld's direction, secret commando units known as hunter-killer teams have been ordered to "kick down the doors," as the generals put it, all over the world in search of al Qaeda members and their sympathizers.
The approach has succeeded in recent months in Iraq, as Special Operations forces have helped capture Saddam Hussein and other Baathist loyalists. But in other parts of the world, particularly Afghanistan, these soldiers and their civilian advocates have complained to superiors that the Pentagon's counterterrorism policy is too inflexible in the use of Special Forces overall and about what units are allowed to chase down suspected terrorists, according to former commandos and a Defense Department official.
In fact, these advocates said the U.S. military may have missed chances to capture two of its most-wanted fugitives -- Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, and Ayman Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden -- during the past two years because of restrictions on Green Berets in favor of two other components of the Special Operations Command, the Delta Force and SEAL Team Six.
They said several credible sightings by CIA and military informants of Omar entering a mosque this spring in Kandahar, Afghanistan, were relayed to U.S. forces at nearby Firebase Gecko, where a Green Beret team was ready to deploy. But rather than send in the Green Berets, who were just minutes from the mosque, commanders followed strict military doctrine and called on the Delta Force, the team of commandos whose primary mission is to kill and capture targets such as Hussein.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:36 PM EST [Link]
~ MYTHOLOGIZING THE FIRST AMENDMENT: Eugene Volokh has an insightful article on NRO today that will likely anger some conservatives. His contention is that liberal judges have not been gutting the First Amendment by supporting speech codes, campaign finance reform, etc.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:55 AM EST [Link]
~ I MUST BE DRUNK: Because the New York Times has accused the Bush administration of reckless spending. What's next? They admit the U.S. won the Iraq war?
Read on. (Free registration)
Posted by steve @ 02:44 AM EST [Link]
~ SENSE PREVAILED: Sunday marked the Muslim football tournament that sparked controversy due to some of the names the lads picked for their teams. AP reports that the tournament went off with only minor protest and after the players got rid of names like 'Soldiers of Allah'.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:33 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK - WILDCARD WEEKEND EDITION: See, that's what you get for tempting the football gods. Never will the words, "We want the ball. We're going to score." be spoken again after someone wins the coin toss in overtime. Seattle Seahawk QB Matt Hasselbeck explained after the game that as a former backup in Green Bay he knew all the Packers on the field during the coin flip and was merely making a joke. Ah, Matt...the football gods do not joke. That's why they allowed Al Harris to pick you off and run it in for the game -- and for you and the Seattle Seahawks, season -- ending touchdown.
Well, last Sunday I picked Tennessee to beat Baltimore, Green Bay to "beat up" on Seattle and Indianapolis to prevail over Denver. All came to pass because of my proper respect for the football gods.
What about Dallas-Carolina? To show you how much of a football geek I am, I came in from my Friday night rat packing and went to bed. Now most men will dream of sexy dames or winning the lottery but not yours truly. I dreamt that the Carolina Panthers would beat the Dallas Cowboys. As you may remember, I picked Dallas but when I awoke Saturday morning I knew that Parcell's boys would not make it to the next round. I don't believe in the power of dreams but a man has to listen when his subconscious is trying to tell him something.
Alright, so what about the divisional weekend? Well, Carolina makes the difficult trip to St. Louis on Saturday and while each team has seven wins in the 14 times they've met, I have to go with the Rams at home. St. Louis has been all but unbeatable at home and I can't imagine they won't win with this much on the line. Tennessee travels to New England in the evening game and I have to admit this is a tough one. That said, the injuries to cats like Steve McNair and Eddie George, while not being the decisive factor, will seal Tennessee's fate. New England to win.
On Sunday we have Indianapolis at Kansas City. Having finally won a game in the playoffs I believe Peyton Manning will lead his Colts to victory on the road against a team that seems to have lost its mojo. Add to that the fact that the Chiefs have not beaten the Colts in their last six meetings and have lost four straight against them at home. Green Bay visits Philadelphia and whoever is at home when these cats meet usually wins. My head tells me to pick Philadelphia but my heart tells me Green Bay. Everyone has to make one mistake so I'm going to listen to my heart and go with the Packers.
There you go, empty out your savings accounts and put it all on St. Louis, New England, Indianapolis and Green Bay.
Posted by steve @ 12:56 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, January 4, 2004 COMING HOME TO THE PARTY OF LINCOLN: Can the Republican Party achieve its goal of winning 25 percent of the black vote? Author Jonetta Rose Barras says Democrats shouldn't write off the possibility given evidence of a rightward shift in the African-American community.
Personally, I think we're a long way off and the emergence of successful centrist black politicians within the Democratic Party indicates that this rightward shift might not result in exclusively Republican gains, but it creates an interesting opportunity. All it would take is 20 to 25 percent of the black vote to consign the Democrats to long-term minority party status.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 08:21 PM EST [Link]
~ PRESIDENT IN 2009: Mark Steyn has a great piece arguing that the last thing the U.S. should do is allow an international tribunal to try Saddam Hussein for his crimes against Iraqis.
Anyone who goes goo-goo at the mention of the words ''international tribunal'' -- i.e., Clark, John Kerry, Howard Dean and the rest of the multilatte multilateralist establishment -- should look at what it boils down to in practice. Even though the court forbade Milosevic and Seselj from actively campaigning in the Serbian election, they somehow managed to. In other words, ''international law'' is unable to enforce its judgments even in its own jailhouse.
But it's worse than that. One reason why Slobo is popular again in Serbia is precisely because of the ''international'' trial. In 2000, when the strongman of the Balkans was swept from power, he was a discredited figure, a European pariah reviled as a murderous butcher. After two years of legal hair-splitting at the Hague, he's all but fully rehabilitated. True, Slobo, conducting his own defense, has been a shameless showboater, but not half as shameless as the absurd prosecutor Carla del Ponte. It's received wisdom among battered Serb democrats that every clumsy indictment of Ponte's drove Slobo's poll numbers higher. Had Serbs prosecuted Milosevic, that would have been one thing. But once it became Euro-preeners prosecuting Serbs, an understandable resentment set in.
This is the justice Clark wants for Saddam Hussein. If he gets his way, Saddam seems a shoo-in for the Iraqi presidential election circa 2009.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:00 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE EVIDENCE OF A CAMPAIGN AGAINST LIMBAUGH: "Palm Beach County prosecutors investigating Rush Limbaugh for his prescription drug use have filed 'doctor shopping' charges against only one person in the past five years, according to a review of court records."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:02 PM EST [Link]
~ CONGRATULATIONS!: After plenty of arguing Afghans have approved a new constitution for their country.
"There is rain coming and flowers are growing over my body," said the chairman of the grand council, or loya jirga, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, reciting a poem. "I am so happy the ending is so pious and beautiful," he said, his voice cracking as he prayed to God.
In an enormous step forward, Afghanistan organized a democratic presidential system, with a directly elected president, a two-chamber national assembly, an independent judiciary and new elections in just six months. In carefully balanced wording intended to combine both democracy and Islam, the country will be renamed the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and will be ruled by civil law, but one in which no law will be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam.
Out of the ashes of September 11 has come freedom for Afghans. I can think of no better tribute to the victims of that day.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
~ RUMSFELD ISN'T AFRAID OF "BEMEDALED" COLIN POWELL: An interesting review of Madeline Albright's memoirs in Commentary. (Via Chapin Nation.)
Posted by antle @ 12:37 AM EST [Link]
~ HONOR HIM, DON'T COURT MARTIAL HIM: While you are still waiting to learn the identity of ESR's Person of the Year, FrontPage Magazine has named theirs: Col. Allen West.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 12:03 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, January 3, 2004 BUSH VS. STATE'S RIGHTS?: President Bush has come under some criticism, both from opponents and those who might be inclined to support him, for increasing federal power in certain areas at the expense of states' rights. While Republicans and conservatives have traditionally defended the states from Washington encroachments, under Bush they have seen the utility of nationalizing certain issues and policy decisions.
Some of the examples brought up are oversimplified - for example, I happen to support the moratorium on Internet taxation and think in practice there is more to it than being a straightforward federalism issue. Others are a little misleading - Rep. Tom Tancredo's bill to cut off federal highway funds to states that give drivers' licenses to illegal aliens (which I also think has some legitimacy due to the federal interest in protecting national borders and curbing illegal immigration) is brought up in the context of an article that lays a lot of the blame for anti-states' rights Republican positions on Bush, when this is legislation Bush is unlikely to support. But worst of all is the spin that Bush v. Gore was the beginning of the president's shift away from support for states' rights, presumably for personal political considerations.
Nevertheless, I also think Bush deserves some of the criticism on this score. By the way, would this be a good place to register my pedantic protest against the term "states' rights?" I support the perogatives of states and their retention of authority over certain decisions under the Tenth Amendment, and I am a believer in federalism. But states' don't have rights, individuals do.
OK, enough of that. Read the full story.
Posted by antle @ 11:19 PM EST [Link]
~ CHILL OUT MAN: The New York Times has a short little story about Howard Dean's temper. The campaign explains it away as exuberance and theatre. Personally I think Dean is one of those classic jerks that exist in all political parties.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:02 PM EST [Link]
~ MR. HYPOCRITE: Howard Dean, who has made a small industry out of accusing George W. Bush of doing a poor job to secure the United States, apparently isn't the templar of security he makes himself out to be.
According to the Associated Press, as Vermont's governor in the early 1990s, Dean was repeatedly warned about horrible security at the state's nuclear power plant.
The warnings, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, began in 1991 when a group of students were brought into a secure area of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant without proper screening. On at least two occasions, a gun or mock terrorists passed undetected into the plant during security tests.
During Dean's final year in office in 2002, an audit concluded that despite a decade of repeated warnings of poor safety at Vermont Yankee, Dean's administration was poorly prepared for a nuclear disaster.
"The lack of funding and overarching coordination at the state level directly impacts the ability of the state, local and power plant planners to be adequately prepared for a real emergency at Vermont Yankee," state Auditor Elizabeth M. Ready wrote in a study issued five months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Security was so lax at Vermont Yankee that in August 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staged a drill in which three mock terrorists gained access to the plant. The agency gave Vermont Yankee the worst security rating among the nation's 103 reactors.
I guess Dean really is an expert on lax security.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:21 PM EST [Link]
~ DUDE, YOU NEVER HAVE CONTROL OVER A WILD ANIMAL: Steve Irwin, better known as the incredibly annoying The Crocodile Hunter (despite the fact that he doesn't hunt crocs), had a Michael Jackson moment on Friday. Irwin held his one month old son in one arm as he fed a crocodile.
Irwin held his baby son Bob under one arm while he fed a 13-foot (4-meter) crocodile named Murray with a dead chicken. Irwin later walked the baby inside the crocodile's enclosure as crowds looked on.
Different strokes for different folks. I'd savagely hurt anyone I thought wanted to hurt my 2 1/2 year old niece...Irwin thinks that a wild animal poses no threat to his child. Who's right?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:30 AM EST [Link]
~ MUST BE GETTING TO BE TIME TO DROP OUT: If you are bottom-tier Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, how do you know when it's a good time to drop out of the race? When your low single-digit polling numbers translate into low single-digit showings in actual primaries?
How about when your fundraising nets you less in federal matching funds than Lyndon LaRouche? Yup, this is Kucinich's accomplishment. By the way, ain't federal funding of campaigns grand? Your tax dollars going to LaRouche is an example of what's in store for you if there's ever a McCain-Feingold II. (Via Virginia Postrel.)
Read the full report.
Posted by antle @ 12:04 AM EST [Link]
Friday, January 2, 2004 HE MUST HAVE GOTTEN DEPRESSED WHEN HE READ ZELL MILLER'S BOOK: One of the best - and most conservative - Democrats in the House, the only one if I recall correctly who voted for all four articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton, Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas has switched to the Republican Party. First elected in 1980, he filed for reelection today in 2004 as the GOP candidate.
But I must admit I don't like the reported reason he switched - over a spending bill for his district. I would have rather he said he was joining to help cut spending and that the party leadership, rather than bribing legislators with pork was actually working toward limited government. But I guess I need to come back to reality. Nevertheless, it shows that the leftward shift of the Democratic Party is leaving many longtime members behind.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 11:24 PM EST [Link]
~ DON'T THROW AWAY THOSE OPPORTUNITIES: Iran has turned down an offer by the U.S. to send Sen. Elizabeth Dole and, of all things, a member of the Bush family on an aid mission.
Iran, throwing away another opportunity to move closer to the community of nations.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:53 PM EST [Link]
~ NOT THE SAME: Christopher Hitchens argues that what's happening in Iraq bears no resemblance to what took place in Algeria.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:17 PM EST [Link]
~ FARCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD: Michael Kinsley has a rather good piece in today's Washington Post on the Valerie Plame and the silliness all sides have engaged in.
Certain dramas are reenacted again and again in Washington, like the Passion Play at Oberammergau. Or Groundhog Day. Or those huge Renaissance paintings on the walls of art museums. The Washington drama of the current moment involves two such familiar plot lines. Independently, they are the stuff of high seriousness. Together, they become farce.
So imagine two giant canvases side by side. One is called "The Demand for a Special Prosecutor." It features a choir of angels in white robes. A light shining down from heaven reveals them to be editorial writers, the heads of nonprofit good-government groups, and politicians of the opposition party. These angels all point an accusing finger at a figure cowering at the bottom right. This is the attorney general (generally portrayed as an animal, half snake and half jackass). In the background are mini-tableaux of various past scandals and present accusations.
The other canvas is called, "The Reporter Protecting His Sources," and shows columnist Robert D. Novak, dressed in a tunic, standing defiantly at the mouth of a cave. One hand thrusts forward in a gesture of "Halt!" The other hand squeezes his pursed lips. In the darkness behind him, we can just make out the presence of bodies -- his sources -- writhing in fear of exposure. In the foreground, helmeted and breastplated soldiers prepare to cart him off to jail.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 10:55 AM EST [Link]
~ IT WOULD BE KIND OF COOL TO OWN: (Via Murdoc Online) It's a joke of course but someone is selling a decommissioned aircraft carrier on eBay. They even accept PayPal!
Bid here.
Posted by steve @ 10:00 AM EST [Link]
~ BUSH NEEDS EUROPE: John O'Sullivan argues an interesting case in the National Post today. He writes that Bush had counted on a different world than what he has today, such as close ties with Latin America (both politically and economically) and an alliance with a nation that could provide a counterbalance to China. Unfortunately for him, Latin America seems more interested in creating an internal trade bloc and electing people like Hugo Chavez and India/Australia aren't big enough to decisively checkmate China.
Who does that leave? You guessed it, America's old friends in Europe.
I can understand O'Sullivan's point, but how can you build an alliance with a group of nations that seem bent on blunting your foreign policy? And don't England, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and a few others count as Europe, or are we only allowed to consider France and Germany to be viable partners?
If Robert Kagan is right, that the U.S. and Europe employ radically different approaches to the use of power, then I don't think that any long-term alliance can be rebuilt between the two. At best we can hope for is occasional agreement.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:27 AM EST [Link]
~ THAT AXIS OF EVIL IS FOLDING UP FAST: It has been announced that a U.S. delegation will visit North Korea's main nuclear facility at Yongbyon in a few days.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:12 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, January 1, 2004 CAN WE TRUST HIM?: Last month Moammar Qadhafi (spell it however you want, I just go by whatever article I'm reading) announced Libya would renounce its WMD programs. One reason is the serious whomping Iraq took during the war. Was another reason that the U.S. and the U.K. interdicted a ship last fall bound for Libya and carrying nuclear weapons components?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:41 PM EST [Link]
~ BUSH AND IRAN AGREE ON SOMETHING: A few days ago the leadership of Iran stated that just because American humanitarian aid was flowing into the country after the earthquake at Bam, doesn't mean that relations between the U.S. and Iran are thawing. Well, Dubya agrees.
"What we're doing in Iran is we're showing the Iranian people the American people care, that they've got great compassion for human suffering," he told reporters after hunting quail here with his father.
But if Tehran wants better relations, it must turn over any member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network it has in custody, abandon efforts to develop unconventional weapons, and embrace political reforms.
While the far left continues to argue about Iran, Bush is already moving onto the next target.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:09 PM EST [Link]
~ PROTEST FOR FREEDOM IN HONG KONG: Organizers in Hong Kong say that 100 000 people marched for democratic reform.
Chanting 'we want democracy - one man one vote", protestors wound through busy shopping districts, starting in Causeway Bay and ending nearly three kilometres later at the main government offices in Central.
Lee Cheuk Yan, a pro-democracy member of the Legislative Council and an organiser of both Thursday's march and the July 1 event, said about 100,000 participated. Hong Kong police did not give an estimate of numbers.
"It's a very good turnout because we had expected around 20,000," said Mr Lee.
"It is a clear message to the government that the issue of democracy is very much alive in Hong Kong," he added.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:36 PM EST [Link]
~ HISTORY CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT: According to a report on the Associated Press service, British intelligence officials reported in 1973 that the United States was considering a plan to invade Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi and seize their oil fields.
A British intelligence committee report from December 1973 said America was so angry over Arab nations' earlier decision to cut oil production and impose an embargo on the United States that seizing oil-producing areas in the region was "the possibility uppermost in American thinking."
Details of the Joint Intelligence Committee report were released under rules requiring that some secret documents be made public after 30 years. The report suggested that Richard Nixon might risk such a drastic move if Arab-Israeli fighting reignited and the oil-producing nations imposed new restrictions.
"Drastic move" is the understatement of this year...well, the first 9 and a half hours of it anyway.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:37 AM EST [Link]
~ I WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED!: Gillian Cosgrove hands out the prestigious "Jillies", awards to celebrate the "perpetrators of words and deeds in Canada that were unusually dumb or devious." Some very 'good' ones for 2003.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:59 AM EST [Link]
~ WORDS TO AVOID: Lake Superior State University has published its list of words that you shouldn't use in 2004.
Posted by steve @ 04:05 AM EST [Link]
~ HAPPY NEW YEAR!: On behalf of the entire ESR staff I'd like to wish you a happy and prosperous 2004!
You're probably wondering, what did the rock and roll conservative Steve do for New Years? How many blondes were on his arms? How many drinks did he have? What kind of outrageous adventures did the man have? The answers to those questions are none. None. None. I stayed in. In fact, I fell asleep before 10:00pm.
I decided not to do New Years this year. My friend Todd, whom I rat pack with every weekend, maintains that New Years is a holiday for non-drinkers. They who do not go out weekends any other time of the year decide to choke up my bars one day a year. They take my cabs and block easy access to the bar where I need to order drinks and make silly passes at women.
Well, enough about me, I hope you went out and I hope you rang in the new year in fun fashion!
[Musings Archive Index] [Back to New Musings]
