Musings Archive April 2004
Friday, April 30, 2004 NO TO REAGAN UNIVERSITY: Nancy Reagan has announced that she will not permit a new university in Colorado to carry her husband's name.
Organizers wanted to name a proposed 10,000-student university after the former president, but his wife issued a statement Thursday effectively killing the idea.
"We do not support the creation of a separate university," she said.
Federal law gives former presidents or their spouses final say over the use of the president's name as long as either is alive, said Terry Walker, the founding president of the university.
I'm shocked but I understand her reasoning. Still, that would have been one heck of a tribute.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:04 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ STRONG WORDS FROM BOTH A CANADIAN AND A LIBERAL: Canadian PM Paul Martin yesterday stated that the UN is a failure, a shocking concept coming from a Canadian politician.
With yesterday's landmark speech, Paul Martin tacitly acknowledged what Canada's foreign policy establishment has refused to accept for decades: that the United Nations is a failure, for which there is no solution.
The Prime Minister's proposed alternative is a new international body, the G-20 summit of world leaders, representative of North and South, developed and developing, rich and poor: a working group unfettered by the UN's bureaucracy and its anachronistic Security Council.
Of course, what Mr. Martin likely wants is a world body even more invasive in a nation's sovereign affairs.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:42 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ AL HURRA RATINGS GOOD: The first ratings are in for the U.S. backed al Hurra Arabic language television station are in and they look good.
Preliminary ratings, based on phone surveys in major Middle Eastern cities in the first part of April, show that an average of 20 percent of the homes contacted had tuned in to Al Hurra during the weeklong period.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:39 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Thursday, April 29, 2004 WOW: Is all I can say about Steve Den Beste's latest post. Just read it.
Posted by steve @ 07:38 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ I KNOW WHAT A CHICKEN HAWK IS...I ALSO KNOW WHAT A CHICKEN S--- IS: By know you've undoubtedly heard about an incredibly sophomoric editorial that appeared in The Daily Collegian, a student newspaper at the University of Massachusetts. In it, the author argued that Pat Tillman was a pandejo (Spanish for idiot apparently) and got what he deserved when he was killed in action in Afghanistan. Even UMass president Jack Wilson was angry. Not surprisingly the student newspaper defended running Rene Gonzalez's piece:
Rene Gonzalez is a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts who occasionally submits columns to The Collegian. While his views in no way reflect the opinion of our editorial board or staff, we base our decisions not on whether we agree with the opinion of students submitting opinion pieces, but on the backbone of journalism: The First Amendment.
As a news organization, The Collegian lists the First Amendment as its most important value and asset. We do not hold back from printing news stories, columns or editorials that may upset our readership - instead, we seek to both inform and stir debate through our publication. Our decision to publish Gonzalez's column - an opinion piece written by a member of our campus community - is the only way for us to live up to this ideal.
As Jonah Goldberg pointed out, this has nothing to do with the First Amendment.
The First Amendment protects against government censorship. This is a question about editorial judgement. Be men (or women) for pete's sake. If you want to defend your decision to run the piece on the merits, great. But don't pretend that the constitution made you do it.
Indeed, if The Collegian "doesn't hold back" from running controversial pieces that will upset their readers -- good for them. I assume they would stand resolute after running a piece which said "Martin Luther King got what he deserved." Or maybe, just maybe, somebody in the newsroom would have said, "Hey you know what? This piece adds almost nothing to the discussion and is needlessly inflamatory."
All I'll say is this: Gonzalez is nothing more than a cobarde. He never would have had the cojones to say any of what he wrote to Pat Tillman's face. Instead, he talked his smack after an American hero died so this cobarde could sit comfortably in Massachusetts and live off the sacrifices of others.
Memo to Gonzalez: You are nothing but a perra.
Posted by steve @ 07:26 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY: It seems Muqtada al-Sadr has a new problem: an underground group that's been killing his militia in Najaf.
For every day that the United States army fails to act on its threat to crush them, the Shiite militiamen of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have grown in confidence in their stronghold in Najaf.
Now, however, a shadowy resistance movement within might be about to succeed where the 2,500 US marines outside the city have failed.
In a deadly expression of feelings that until now were kept quiet, a group representing local residents is said to have killed at least five militiamen in the last four days.
The murders are the first sign of organised Iraqi opposition to Sadr’s presence and come amid simmering discontent at the havoc their lawless presence has wreaked.
The group calls itself the Thulfiqar Army, after a twin-bladed sword said to be used by the Shiite martyr Imam Ali, to whom Najaf’s vast central mosque is dedicated.
Residents say leaflets bearing that name have been circulated in the city in the last week, urging Sadr’s al-Mahdi army to leave immediately or face imminent death.
I'd be cheering if I didn't think this was enough to create the potential of mass sectarian violence.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:24 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ EVEN AMERICANS LOVE DON CHERRY: Anthony, my stablemate over at The Shotgun and proprietor of The Meatriarchy, is launching a campaign to subvert the CBC's quest for the "Greatest Canadian."
The CBC is undoubtedly expecting Pierre Trudeau to be picked and every conservative Canadian should fear the hagiographic biography that would result. Anthony's idea? Get everyone to vote for someone else. His pick seems to be colourful hockey commentator Don Cherry, rumoured to be fired at the end of this hockey season. I can dig it.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:06 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ KERRY ON WMDS: Hugh Hewitt has a good piece up at the Weekly Standard on John Kerry and the issue of WMDs in Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:50 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ FUN IN LA-LA LAND: (via reader Ben Cunningham) KFI Radio reports that LA County Sheriff officials have apparently been pressured to work on a political campaign. The campaign is Sheriff Lee Baca’s petition drive to qualify an increase in the sales tax for the ballot.
You can find the radio reports here.
Posted by steve @ 02:27 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ RELIGIOUS CANADIANS...IT AIN'T GOING TO BE NICE FOR YOU: Canada's Senate yesterday passed Bill C-250, legislation that would amend the Criminal Code to bar hate crimes against gays. I have no specific problem with this notion but my problem with the bill is that it doesn't contain -- in my opinion -- sufficient protection for religious speech.
Earlier this month I penned a piece that ran in some newspaper or another in Canada on the legislation concerning my fears. To read it, click on "More"
[more]Posted by steve @ 01:45 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [13 comments]
~ TOO BAD I DON'T HAVE ANY HOT DOGS: Sean Hackbarth's latest Kerry's House of Ketchup is up and you can read it here.
Posted by steve @ 01:38 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 TROUBLE FOR THE MULLAHS: Vodka Pundit has posted a very interesting article detailing how the legitimacy of Iran's ruling theocracy is increasingly underfire.
Supreme Ruler Ali Khamene‘i’s authority and ability to govern has been publicly and directly questioned in an unprecedented open letter written by members of the Majlis (parliament) and widely publicized outside Iran. Two Iranian newspapers, Yaass Noh and Shargh, which reprinted the letter within the country, were immediately closed down. This essentially unprecedented confrontation against the clerical leadership of Iran signaled an at- tempt to cut the clerics off at the knees rather than dispute election details or the misuse of existing power structures.
Nor are the hardliners still a monolithic group, sharing the same religious and ideological aims and opinions as was the case when “Ayatollah” Ruhollah Khomeini was alive and in charge after the 1979 collapse of the Imperial Government. Khomeini had demonstrated an unbending, single-minded resolve and capability to hold all institutions and individuals in line, but now, previously concealed dissent among the major players has sprung to the fore. When the veil of “democratic and fair elections” was torn away by the hardliners, it revealed more than was intended.
Significantly, the former President of Iran and head of the Expediency Council and international businessman “Ayatollah” Abbas Hashemi Rafsanjani has also openly announced his policy disagreement with Ali Khamene‘i over talks with the US, citing sorrow that Khamene’s clinging to Khomeini’s anti-US edicts rather than to pragmatic policy, had stifled Iran’s ability to advance politically.
Religious scholars can find no basis for Ali Khamene’s self-awarded ayatollah title or of Rafsanjani’s use of that appellation. Nor Khomeini’s, though he was artificially elevated and granted use of Ayatollah to save his life.
With all bets off, the reformers have now struck at the heart of the revolution and are insisting on an inquiry into the disappearance of Grand Ayatollah Mussa Sadr, some 25-years ago, during a visit to Libya.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:21 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ SAD HAPPY NEWS: James Ruhland, an ESR contributor who is better known for his great blog Porphyrogenitus, will be leaving the blog world in two weeks to go into the U.S. Army.
The internet has been a blessing for me. I have more people who I consider friends who I have never seen than those who I have. In part that is because of where I live, out in the boonies. There are few people here, and even fewer who share my interests. But in large part it's because I'm introverted and shy until I get to know someone. The thing I'm going to miss most of all is interacting with people on the internet. When I was in Basic last time around, in '88, there wasn't that (or I wasn't really aware of it, anyhow) so I didn't miss its absence. I'm pretty confident that Basic isn't going to be a problem - I still remember a lot from before. I'm looking forward to the Army and I should have gone in years ago. As I wrote when I announced signing up, a lot of things held me back over the years, some significant and others in retrospect less so. Giving this up, even for two or four months, was one of those mental blocks. There are people out there who I game and chat with who I'm going to miss in the interim.
We'll miss you James, but are also proud of you.
Posted by steve @ 03:59 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 2 (+/-)] [2 comments]
~ ONLY THE DRUNK BELIEVE IN PLANNED ECONOMIES: (via reader Jorn K. Baltzersen) A price war has occurred in Norway but nothing like boring gasoline price wars, no in Norway it's all about beer.
Norwegians rushed out to stock up on beer on Friday after authorities ruled it was too cheap following an unprecedented price war in a nation used to some of the most expensive alcohol on earth.
The price-cutting in Norway, whose sky-high alcohol taxes aim to curb drinking, has more than halved beer prices to 6.5 crowns ($1) for a 0.33 liter bottle in recent weeks.The price is lower than the 6.7 crowns tax, meaning retailers are selling at a loss.
"The current price on beer is in breach of the alcohol law," Bjorn-Inge Larsen, director of the health directory, told a news conference, ordering retailers to boost prices or be stripped of their licenses to sell alcohol.
Seems the price war was started because Norwegians are buying a lot of their beer in Sweden and Denmark or make it at home. Jorn tells me in his email that "authorities are telling the hero retailers that they have to make money. The retailers must have a 'reasonable' profit."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:30 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ PITY: On Monday Doug Patton worried in these very pages that Arlen Specter would win in his Pennsylvania GOP primary over more conservative challenger Rep. Pat Toomey and it has come to pass.
With 97 percent of the precincts reporting early Wednesday, Specter, a leading Republican moderate, had 513,041 votes, or 51 percent, to Toomey's 496,567 votes, or 49 percent.
Shortly after the results, Toomey -- a three-term congressman from Allentown -- conceded defeat, saying he had called Specter to congratulate him on the win.
Posted by steve @ 02:07 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ HAVE THEY FOUND THEM?: According to Insight on the News American weapons inspectors have found Saddam Hussein's WMDs. The media, however, isn't reporting this.
In virtually every case - chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles - the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), whose intelligence analysts are managed by Charles Duelfer, a former State Department official and deputy chief of the U.N.-led arms-inspection teams, has found "hundreds of cases of activities that were prohibited" under U.N. Security Council resolutions, a senior administration official tells Insight. "There is a long list of charges made by the U.S. that have been confirmed, but none of this seems to mean anything because the weapons that were unaccounted for by the United Nations remain unaccounted for."
Both Duelfer and his predecessor, David Kay, reported to Congress that the evidence they had found on the ground in Iraq showed Saddam's regime was in "material violation" of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, the last of 17 resolutions that promised "serious consequences" if Iraq did not make a complete disclosure of its weapons programs and dismantle them in a verifiable manner. The United States cited Iraq's refusal to comply with these demands as one justification for going to war.
Both Duelfer and Kay found that Iraq had "a clandestine network of laboratories and safe houses with equipment that was suitable to continuing its prohibited chemical- and biological-weapons [BW] programs," the official said. "They found a prison laboratory where we suspect they tested biological weapons on human subjects." They found equipment for "uranium-enrichment centrifuges" whose only plausible use was as part of a clandestine nuclear-weapons program. In all these cases, "Iraqi scientists had been told before the war not to declare their activities to the U.N. inspectors," the official said.
Read on to find out how the media is reporting these finds.
Posted by steve @ 02:02 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 A CAMPAIGN IN COLLAPSE: The Village Voice is convinced that John Kerry hasn't got what it takes to win in November and is calling on Democrats to go with another candidate. First time I can remember that a candidate who dominated in the primaries is losing support before the convention takes place.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:04 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ TAKING A SICK DAY: If Glenn Reynolds can do it, so can I. Sorry for the lack of blogging today. I'm rather sick today -- I feel like I've been worked over by Tony Soprano's crew -- so I'm taking the day off. Hopefully I'll blog later today.
Pity I didn't have any of Izzy's famous chicken soup!
Posted by steve @ 04:31 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Monday, April 26, 2004 KERRY TURNS HAWK ON DEFENSE: John Kerry today turned into a Republican on defense issues, promising if he is elected to increase the U.S. military by 40 000 soldiers and send more troops to Iraq if needed.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:44 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
~ IS THE KITCHEN TOO HOT?: John Kerry today is outraged -- outraged! -- that there is a controversy over his famous medal throwing protest in 1971.
"I'm not going to stand for it," Kerry told ABC's "Good Morning America," "I'm not going to stand for it."
The presumptive Democratic nominee, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, said Republicans were behind the latest questions and pointed out that they coincide with new GOP television ads that attack Kerry on national defense.
At issue is Kerry's participation in a 1971 protest at which several veterans discarded their medals in protest of the Vietnam War.
Kerry threw away the ribbons from his medals, along with the actual medals of two veterans who were not able to attend the ceremony, according to the candidate's Web site.
Except, of course, that Kerry has only recently admitted that he only threw his ribbons and the medals of other veterans. For decades he never corrected the impression that he had thrown his own medals despite having, oh, several thousand opportunities to do so. That, my boy, is lying by omission. Don't get me wrong, I don't judge Kerry for what he did while serving in Vietnam. I'm only judging Botox Boy for his disgraceful behavior after he returned.
Read on. Read a portion of his GMA remarks here.
Posted by steve @ 02:21 PM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [1 Comment]
~ VIEWING REALITY WITH A LEFTIST FILTER: Brian Tiemann is quite possibly one of the best writers on the Internet that you may have never heard of. Apart from his silly love of Apple computers, he's a very bright guy. He proved that with a great essay on Saturday that I would have loved to run in ESR had I seen it earlier.
In that essay Brian writes about leftists who make assumptions and then try and force reality to conform to their vision of the world.
Have you ever seen a testimonial quote on a DVD case that says something like, "This is ... a good movie"?
Makes you wonder exactly what the ellipsis is leaving out, doesn't it? Like, say, the word not?
Anyway, that's how I often feel these days when trying to work out exactly what ails the Left so severely as to completely alienate me from all the Leftist ideals that I once held so dear, not to say from all my Leftist friends who (with a few rare exceptions) want to have nothing to do with me once they've discovered I'm no longer batting for their team.
It has to do, I guess, with being able to formulate complex hypotheses about how the real world works, founded upon completely, provably incorrect basic assumptions. They'll take some concept that they picked up somewhere, like "The Republicans and the KKK are basically the same thing"—and use it as the foundation and the springboard for a whole worldview that assumes that anyone who votes for someone with an R next to their name is a racist, or at least condones racism.
Sigh and trot out unpleasant facts that specifically refute the fundamental assumption, and you get sputtering, hemming, hawing, and furious attempts to reclaim some kind of moral high ground—certainly not anything like an "Oh, I guess I was wrong."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:44 AM EST [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Sunday, April 25, 2004 'THERE WAS A RARE PURITY ABOUT HIM.': It appeared Friday and you probably already saw it but Tim Layden wrote a great story about Pat Tillman.
Posted by steve @ 07:01 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE RICHARD CLARKE PLEASE: Mark Steyn argues that recent events have proven that the Democrats are not representative of 'moderate' America.
It's a good rule of thumb that so-called moderate opinion is several degrees to the left of popular opinion. You can test this for yourself easily enough: pick a subject such as, say, illegal immigration and compare the position of every Democratic senator, the majority of Republican senators and 90 percent of the media with the position of the American people.
That's why the press were befuddled by last week's polls. A month of Richard Clarke, the 9/11 Commission, Bob Woodward, Muqtada al-Sadr, Fallujah and Basra, and a constant drip-drip-drip of conventional wisdom on the president's "vulnerability" from the Beltway to Hollywood to the Ivy League to that brave radio station in Plattsburgh, N.Y., that's now the flagship of Al Franken's Air America ''network'' -- and what happens? Bush's numbers go up and Kerry's go down.
Another six weeks of Dick Clarke's book tour, of snotty network reporters condescending to the president at his press conference, of the sneering Richard Ben Veniste and emotionally unhinged Bob Kerrey badgering Condi Rice at their hack hearings, of Bob Woodward and his unreadable book filling up slabs of CNN's prime time every night with irrelevant arcana about what did Prince Bandar know and when did he tell Woodward he knew it, another six weeks of things that make Bush ''vulnerable,'' and he'd be heading for a 49-state blowout over Kerry.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:27 PM EST [Link]
~ BUSH AND THE PRESS: Jay Rosen has a very interesting piece up about the role that the press plays with George W. Bush in power. Bush apparently believes that the media is no longer important and he may be right.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:17 PM EST [Link]
~ THIS IS WHY YOU'RE CONSIDERED A LOSER: Canadian 'conservative' Joe Clark today opined that it would be "dangerous" to let Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper run the country and even hinted it would be better to vote Liberal.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:56 PM EST [Link]
~ HE KIND OF PROVED HIS OWN POINT: An Oregon university student has been barred from writing for his university newspaper after writing, "I think blacks should be more careful in deciding whom they choose to support. They need to grow beyond the automatic reaction of defending someone because he or she shares the same skin color and is in a dilemma."
Why was he fired? Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:39 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, April 24, 2004 DO THEY EVER GET ANYTHING RIGHT?: The New York Times has a massive front page story about John Kerry and his anti-war activities but over at Just One Minute the alleged "newspaper of record" is accused of getting even the basic facts wrong.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:17 PM EST [Link]
~ LIGHTNING DOES OCCASIONALLY STRIKE TWICE: But it sure as heck won't strike three times. The New York Giants are the proud owners of Eli Manning, the third pro quarterback from that family. Manning was drafted by San Diego before being shovel passed over to the Giants for Philip Rivers, a third this year and a first and fifth in 2005.
Suckers.
I hereby make the prediction that Manning won't live up to the hype and the Giants will look back on this day as a big mistake.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:09 PM EST [Link]
~ IS THIS NADER'S MOMENT?: I have tended to wonder what Ralph Nader's motivation to run for president in 2004 is. Opposition to George W. Bush seems to have mobilized the left in a way that Al Gore never could have. Principled liberals and leftists with misgivings about John Kerry nevertheless do not want to tip the election to President Bush, who in all probability carried at least two states he needed to put him over the top last time around on the strength of Nader's votes.
Considering this, and taking into account the fact that Nader has started late and is running without the Green Party's nomination, it was hard to see what the longtime consumer advocate could hope to accomplish. He has already experienced difficulty getting on the ballot in places like Oregon where he once had strong support. It didn't seem likely that he would be able to reproduce his 2000 performance again this year; in fact, I half-expect him to get something closer to the 700,000 votes he got in 1996.
Over at Tech Central Station, James Glassman disagrees. He argues that if the antiwar movement begins to grow, given the similarity between Bush and Kerry on the issue, this could be Nader's moment. I'm not entirely persuaded by his analysis, but I do find it interesting. Read on.
Posted by antle @ 04:58 PM EST [Link]
Friday, April 23, 2004 STUPIDITY IS CHEAP, THAT'S WHY IT'S SO PLENTIFUL: On a day I learn that Pat Tillman died defending America and the concept of freedom the last thing I need to hear about is some cat in Louisiana who wants to ban low-rider pants.
Don't get me wrong, I hate low-rider/low-rise pants with a passion. Even on people who can pull them off I think it tends to be a bad look. Then again, I'm a rock and roll conservative with mildly socially conservative tendences.
Louisiana State Rep. Derrick Shepherd says he's tired of catching glimpses of young people's underwear so he's filed a bill that would fine anyone who wears the pants $500. If that wasn't enough, they could also face jail time.
"I'm sick of seeing it," said Shepherd, a first-term legislator. "The community's outraged. And if parents can't do their job, if parents can't regulate what their children wear, then there should be a law."
I have some respect for Shepherd because he served his country in the Navy as a corpsman and served in the Marine Corps during Desert Storm. Hell, he's still a JAG with the U.S. Army with the rank of captain. He's no shirker and regardless of his politics I'd be proud to call him a friend. That said, as a veteran who defended the cause of freedom, he should know better than to start trying to pass stupid laws like this.
Frankly, I'd target people who wear white too early or too late in the year.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:05 PM EST [Link]
~ AMERICAN HERO DIES IN COMBAT: Former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman was killed yesterday in combat in Afghanistan. Tillman made headlines when he walked away from a $3.6 million contract in the wake of September 11, 2001 to serve his country. He joined the Special Forces and was posted to Afghanistan.
The rest of my day is going to be awful.
Peggy Noonan, among many others, has written about him in the past. There was also an article in the American Spectator.
He was more of a man then most of us will ever live to be.
Posted by steve @ 11:30 AM EST [Link]
~ 'DISCREPANCIES' IS ONE WAY TO REFER TO IT: The Boston Globe has been pouring through John Kerry's military records and notes 'discrepancies'.
Vietnam combat records posted on John F. Kerry's campaign website for the month of January 1969 as evidence of his service aboard swift boat No. 94 describe action that occurred before Kerry was skipper of that craft, according to the officer who said he commanded the boat at the time.
On the site, the Massachusetts senator is described as the skipper of Navy boat No. 94 during several actions in late January 1969.
However, Edward Peck, who was the skipper of the 94 before Kerry took over, said combat reports posted by the campaign for January 1969 involve action when he was the skipper, not Kerry. Peck, who was seriously wounded in fighting that took place on Jan. 29, 1969, said he believes Kerry campaign aides made a mistake in claiming Kerry as skipper of the 94 at that time.
On the Kerry website, the report of the combat on that day on the 94 boat is posted as occurring during Kerry's time as skipper of the boat. Peck said Kerry replaced him after the Jan. 29, 1969, event.
"Those are definitely mine," Peck said, referring to the combat reports that the Kerry campaign posted as representing Kerry's action. "There is no doubt about it."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:20 AM EST [Link]
~ I LIKE WAFFLES: But I imagine John Kerry doesn't. The campaign to Google-bomb "waffles" to return John Kerry's web site as the first result has succeeded.
Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
~ STUPIDITY IS WORLDWIDE: British judges have granted bail/house arrest for an Algerian man linked to al-Qaida.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:19 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, April 22, 2004 NOW THIS IS JUST PLAIN STUPID: The White House confirmed today that it will likely allow the Ba'ath Party members into government and military positions. I know the counter argument is that the allies allowed many ex-Nazis back into government after the war and Germany turned out alright but that was after those people renounced their Nazi ideology. Given that much of the violence in Iraq is the result of Ba'athists trying to return to power, I think this is just plain stupid.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:48 PM EST [Link]
~ WAS KIM JONG IL A TARGET?: Speculation is surfacing that the collision between two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum may have been an attempt on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's life. I'm inclined to think that it was simply just an accident given that the accident occurred 9 hours after he passed through Ryongchon. That said, I'm sure Little Kim will use this tragedy -- over 3000 were killed or injured -- to his regime's advantage.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:54 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD?: Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore and TechCentralStation honco Nick Schulz have an interesting article about the environmentalist movement and the effect its had on the Third World.
There is no doubt that the environments of wealthy, developed countries are considerably healthier today than on the first Earth Day. Air and water are cleaner. Human life expectancies are longer. Forests are abundant and growing. Developed countries have wanted improved environments and they have been wealthy enough to afford them.
But the story is much different elsewhere. Indeed, for much of the rest of the world, conditions are worse than they should be. Ironically, the very movement that made its presence felt in rallies across this country in 1970 and that thrives in the developed world today must shoulder much of the blame for the developing world's sorry state. It is impeding both economic and environmental progress due to an agenda that is anti-development, anti- technology and, in the final analysis, anti-human.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:49 PM EST [Link]
~ HAPPY LENIN'S BIRTHDAY!: Today is, of course, Earth Day so I offer a pair of articles for you. The first was written by the incomparable Alan Caruba and the second by Alexander Marriott.
Posted by steve @ 02:42 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M STILL WAITING FOR THE BODIES: And so is Catholic League president William Donohue. According to a press release yesterday, Donohue wants to know where the anti-Semitism that was supposed to spring up after the release of The Passion of the Christ is.
Two months have elapsed since the film was released and no Jew has been killed. Not only have there been no pogroms, there have been no reported beatings, and no reported acts of vandalism associated with the film. This is true not only in the U.S.; it is true all over the world. By now the movie has played in literally scores of countries, all without violence.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:27 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 WHO DO YOU TRUST?: Brian Tiemann has an interesting post in reaction to a story about British and American Muslims who have no problems telling you that they want a massive terrorist attack to take place in the cities where they live. Says Brian:
The strength of our society—trust—is also its weakness. See, we all trust each other to a certain degree, all day long, to act in a certain way, and to behave in a certain predictable manner that's in accordance to what we say we're going to do. When that trust is intact, our society blossoms. But when we rely too much on that trust, it's so easy to subvert.
The USSR learned this long ago: communism requires the cooperation of everybody to work, but it takes only the rebellion of one person for it to fail. ...Unless you kill that person.
We have a lesser version of that problem here. We don't know how much we can trust Muslims. The article in ThisIsLondon is interspersed with statements from moderate Muslims (like the president of the Islamic Cultural Society in Luton) who insist that the firebrands are the exception, but what are we risking if we take his word over theirs? In a world where we're accustomed to far more honesty in our interpersonal dealings than we really even believe, can we even recognize deceit like this anymore, or distinguish it from harmless bluster?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:36 PM EST [Link]
~ I THOUGHT BUSH WAS HITLER: Iain Murray over at The Edge of England's Sword is rather unhappy that an U.N. official compared skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg to none other than Hitler.
Read on. Read our review of The Skeptical Environmentalist here.
Posted by steve @ 02:23 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS IT REALLY WAS ALL ABOUT THE OIL: ABC News reports that the main beneficiaries of the U.N.'s Oil for Food program were the hierarchy of officials who ran the programs and scores of politicians and political parties around the world who received bribes. Among those accused are Benon Sevan, the cat who ran the program for six years.
Read on.
[Update 2:16pm] The U.N. voted today to launch an investigation of the program and the allegations surrounding it. Paul Volcker will be in charge.
Posted by steve @ 02:04 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE TROUBLE IN IRAN: Although everyone's attention is focused in Iraq, conflicts continue across the border between the regime and its opponents.
Posted by steve @ 01:54 PM EST [Link]
~ CHAOS RETURNS TO IRAQ: British snideness over the events at Fallujah likely ended this morning when Basra was hit with the same style of violence. Several police facilities were hit by suicide bombers, killing at least 68 Iraqis -- 20 of them children.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:27 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, April 20, 2004 A GOOD STEP: Iraqi leaders today announced that they have formed a tribunal to try former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:08 PM EST [Link]
~ MOST POLITICIANS PUT THE YOUTH TO SLEEP: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) But it appears John Kerry is going out of his way to do it. According to a Village Voice report, Kerry's campaign isn't catching fire with the kids.
The first clue was the light jazz. Last week's "Change Starts With U: Kerry Campus Tour 2004" was billed as the unveiling of John Kerry's "Compact with the Next Generation," including tuition assistance and a national-service program. These five Northeastern college appearances were designed to inspire 30 million young adults to make the difference for Democrats in this presidential election. The press release promised "high-profile entertainment."
But on Wednesday at Harlem's City College, as hundreds of students and more than 50 members of the media waited over half an hour to hear Kerry, they listened to the cocktail-party stylings of a light jazz quartet. "It's all right," a slouching young man with a nose ring and ponytail commented. "It's keeping me awake." That was more than could be said for the rest of the program.
Judging from Wednesday's performance, John Kerry is not all that interested in playing to young voters. Senator Hillary Clinton, greeted with a standing ovation, introduced the presumptive Democratic nominee, ticking off a long list of his accomplishments in the Senate: the fight for Vietnam P.O.W.'s and M.I.A.'s, the investigations into Iran Contra and BCCI, and a crusade against irresponsible fiscal policies. All important, none relevant to a college student today.
Exciting stuff. Perhaps he could also regale the crowd with stirring speeches concerning the crafting of the federal budget in, oh let's say, 1994.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:28 PM EST [Link]
~ CARNIVAL OF THE CANUCKS: The latest Carnival of the Canucks is up, this time hosted by Easternblog who -- gasp! -- isn't Canadian but an American living in Toronto. Check it out here.
Posted by steve @ 03:21 PM EST [Link]
~ DOUBLE STANDARD ALERT!: The media positively howled for George W. Bush to release his records and yet have been mostly quiet when it comes to John Kerry. The Boston Globe reports today that Kerry has only released some of his records and that questions are being raised about one of his Purple Hearts.
Meanwhile, Joe Gandelman writes that Kerry's refusal to be upfront about all aspects of his military record is a big gift to the Bush campaign.
Posted by steve @ 03:16 PM EST [Link]
~ TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY: Lt. Gen. David Barno says that Pakistan has done a good job in disrupting al-Qaida operations in remote areas of that country.
In an interview in Kabul, the Afghan capital, General Barno commended the Pakistani military for its "bold moves" against foreign fighters in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan in March. He said it had so far prevented an anticipated offensive this spring in Afghanistan by the remnants of Taliban fighters who are suspected to have taken refuge across the Pakistani border in tribal areas.
"There have been some tough fights, so I give them great credit for making some bold moves over there," he said. The Pakistani operation since January has been larger and more intense than the previous level of enforcement in the border area, he said. He added that it appears to have disrupted what had been a very stable area for Al Qaeda's foreign fighters and senior leadership, where they are believed to have lived and operated for two years.
Read on. (NYT, Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 03:11 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S STILL EARLY, BUT...: A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Monday shows that George W. Bush's lead over John Kerry is growing. In fact, a lot of his numbers look decent, though not spectacular.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:24 AM EST [Link]
Monday, April 19, 2004 SPIN ONLY WORKS ON PLATES IN VEGAS ACTS: I've been getting a bunch of email from folks asking me about Jamie Gorelick's background so I offer a link to Jay Reding's fisking of a WaPo piece that appeared a few days ago.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:46 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU CAN ALWAYS FIND ONE: The incomparable Damian Penny reports that the CBC has done the impossible and found a conservative who is opposed to Canada's annual seal hunt.
I have to give CBC Newfoundland some credit. 99.99999% of those who oppose the seal hunt are lefties, but the producers of their afternoon drive-time show found a militant right-winger who can whinge about killing animals - killing cute animals, anyway - just as annoyingly as any Nader supporter.
In addition to repeating lots of IFAW &!$%@*&# (40% of all seals are skinned alive. Riiiiiight.), Rachel Marsden takes a page from PETA's book and compares the hunt to the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein.
Read on. As Damian mentions, we've blogged about Ms. Marsden in the past.
Posted by steve @ 04:43 PM EST [Link]
~ GOOD NEWS I SUPPOSE: A cease fire is in effect in Fallujah and the city's civil leaders have called on enemy fighters to turn in their heavy weapons.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:18 PM EST [Link]
~ THE PICTURES YOU DON'T SEE: (Via Instapundit) With the following caption: An Iraqi civilian kisses the hand of U.S. Marine Cpl. Joseph Sharp from Peoria, Ill., after Marines from the 1st Battalion 5th Marines gave him a supply of food and water in Fallujah, Iraq, Monday, April 19, 2004.
Posted by steve @ 02:10 PM EST [Link]
~ IT SUCKS: David Shaw of the Los Angeles Times reports that the biggest problem Air America has is that it completely sucks.
So at 6 a.m. on Good Friday — the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, the day after Condoleezza Rice testified before the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks — I tuned in to 1580, turned on my computer to take notes and sat with both until 11 p.m.
It may have been the most boring day of my life.
My fellow liberals have long argued that they haven't been able to match the conservative success on talk radio because the medium is ideally suited to conservatives. According to this self-serving argument, conservatives are more willing than liberals to engage in nasty name-calling and to see everything in black and white, while liberals — concerned with nuance and complexity — are inevitably reasonable, willing to consider both sides of an issue. But President W's policies — especially in Iraq — have now so enraged liberals that they are willing to play dirty too. Hence, Air America.
Not.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:04 PM EST [Link]
~ 'WHO DO THEY THINK WE ARE?': Always my favourite Churchill line and Michael Ledeen uses it as a starting point to explore what it is that the terrorists of the world must think of us.
The terror masters have the same contemptuous vision of us. And if you look at the way they deal with our governments, you will see a mixture of contempt and bemusement, as they repeatedly get us to go for the same tricks and deceptions.
In the past few days there has been a great to-do about a possible Iranian role in Iraq, mediating between us and Moqtada al Sadr. In the end, it came to nothing. Iran's deputy foreign minister was either unwilling or unable to deliver Moqtada, blamed us for the "failure," and went back to Tehran. But the point of the exercise was not to solve a problem for us — on the contrary, the Iranians intend to create ever greater problems on the ground — but to deliver a message to the restive Iranian people: "The Americans are so weak and impotent that they have to turn to us for help. So just forget about any American help to get rid of us."
If we can't manage Iraq without the mullahs, we certainly can't be strong enough to help the Iranian people get rid of the mullahcracy and achieve freedom.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:59 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, April 18, 2004 RIGHT WING FICTION: Julia Gorin reports on Emperor's New Clothes Press, a new Internet based publishing company that will specialize in politically conservative literary fiction.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:46 PM EST [Link]
~ HE HAS A LOT TO APOLOGIZE FOR: Mark Steyn on Richard Clarke's apology. 'Nuff said.
Posted by steve @ 11:18 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M KIND OF DISAPPOINTED: Instapundit links to an article on ESR yesterday and we don't get instalanched! How are we ever going to test the limits of this server?
Posted by steve @ 03:12 PM EST [Link]
~ ALWAYS AHEAD OF THE CURVE: As I predicted yesterday, Hamas announced today that their new leader's identity will remain a secret.
Posted by steve @ 03:05 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, April 17, 2004 IT'S GETTING TO BE LIKE THE AMERICAN MAFIA: It's not commonly known but these days, no one wants to be the head of a major mob family -- at least no one with sense. The reason? You become an instant target. With the mob so weakened in the U.S., law enforcement agencies can now essentially pick off anyone who is publicly identified as a head of a family. It's relatively safer now to remain a captain where you attract less attention.
I suspect that lesson is being learned in the upper echelons of Hamas with Abdel Aziz Rantisi's death today as the result of an Israeli missile strike. With his and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's deaths within a month of each other, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Hamas will not announce its new leader...assuming someone actually wants the job.
Posted by steve @ 07:08 PM EST [Link]
~
KILL KILL BILL, VOL 2: Last year I raved about Kill Bill, Vol. 1 as a pleasant -- if incredibly violent -- homage to Kung Fu movies but unfortunately with Vol. 2 I come to bury the movie, not praise it. I knew there might be trouble when I started reading reviews that said the second installment featured a lot more expository dialogue and I was right. Vol. 2 features a lot of dialogue and not a heck of a lot> action. Outside of a fight with Darryl Hannah's character and the death of Bill, Vol. 2 was pretty quiet. At one point I leaned over to my friend and asked, "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?" If you're a Simpsons fan, you know what I'm saying.
I have to get Tarantino credit though, as a master when it comes to copying the style of other movies. In the beginning you see clear referencing of Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and during the scenes where Uma was training, any Kung Fu fan would be pleased with the nod to the standards of the genre. Several times during the film I found myself smiling at how well he pulled it off.
It was nice to see Gordon Liu in it again, this time as the old Master who teaches Uma Thurman. If you're a Kung Fu buff you know that Liu was in many Shaw Brothers films including the classic 5 Masters of Death, directed by the legendary Cheh Chang. If Quentin Tarantino ever revisits the Kung Fu genre again, I urge him to watch his collection of Chang directed films to learn how to do it right.
Still, paying $9.75 to watch Thurman for two hours isn't the worst thing in the world.
That said, I'm going off to watch Five Deadly Venoms from my collection, directed by Chang Cheh.
Posted by steve @ 06:59 PM EST [Link]
Friday, April 16, 2004 THAT'S ALWAYS GOOD NEWS THERE: Winds of Change reports that Algeria has just held what pretty well everyone is proclaiming to be free and fair elections. Nicely done!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:16 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY HE'S ONE OF THE BEST: James Lileks breaks his silence over the issue of gay marriage and bangs out an amazing collection of paragraphs.
Earlier that day I’d heard an interesting debate on the Dennis Prager show. He had two anthropologists as guests, both tenured professors who favore of elastic definitions of marriage. One of them said the most extraordinary thing, which prompted me to finally say something about it here. I’ve avoided the topic because A) I really don’t have any observations not covered elsewhere by other fine commentators, and B) expression of opposition to gay marriage often leads to a distortion of one’s views. After the constitutional amendment issue was floated, I caught a couple examples of TV commentators calling it “a ban on gay unions,” which is an utter mischaracterization of the issue. As if the government was going to find gay couples, crowbar them apart and make them live alone in dismal one-room apartments. And I’ve heard callers to radio hosts insist that in the end it’s all about homophobia, or religious intolerance, no matter what arguments the host might put forward.
Well, I have no religious opposition to homosexuality. I think civilized society recognizes that a small percentage of its citizens are drawn to the same sex, and that’s no reason to gather up the pitchforks and flaming torches, okay? Live and let live. Consenting adults, etc. And it's not one of those "you repulse me, and you should be glad I tolerate your presence" things. It's just no big deal for me. Not on the radar. I have no problem with civil unions; I have no problem with gay adoption, either. We had a piece in the paper a few months ago about a gay couple who’d adopted six HIV-positive children from other countries. Six! And I’m supposed to stand in judgment of them?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:31 AM EST [Link]
~ ARE THE BRITISH REALLY AMERICA'S STAUNCH ALLY?: Dariush Shirazi isn't quite sure given some of the recent allegations concerning Iranian activities in Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:59 AM EST [Link]
~ I'M ACTUALLY SURPRISED: Europe has rejected an offer by Osama bin Laden for a truce.
In Italy, a nation shocked by the killing of an Italian civilian captured by militants in Iraq, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was "unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden, everybody understands this."
French President Jacques Chirac, one of the firmest opponents of the war that ousted Saddam Hussein, was equally clear: "No dealings are possible with terrorists."
Germany, which is now helping train Iraqi police, also strongly rejected the truce offer. "Any attempt to split Europe will fail," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Perhaps there is hope for Europe yet.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:08 AM EST [Link]
~ SOMEONE TO KEEP CHUCK MORSE COMPANY: Readers are no doubt aware that ESR senior writer Chuck Morse is running for Congress in Massachusetts as a Republican, taking on Barney Frank. ESR friend Lawrence Henry has a piece in the American Spectator Online pointing out the pro-family activist Ron Crews may challenge another liberal incubment, Congressman Jim McGovern.
The third district has been known to vote Republican on occasion and can be competitive if given the right candidate. But a Georgia preacher who has worked full-time for a "Christian right" activist would be a tough sell. Maybe Crews can do it. I can give him at least this much of an advantage - I'm registered to vote in that district!
Posted by antle @ 12:17 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, April 15, 2004 WELL, HE DID INVENT THE INTERNET: I was checking my e-mail and one of my roommates asked me, "Why does Al Gore provide the voice for AOL's 'You've got mail' announcement?"
Posted by antle @ 11:49 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT'S PRETTY DAMNED WHITE: Carlos Watson of CNN's The Inside Edge this week takes a look at John Kerry's campaign staff.
Critics of Republicans love to point out how lily white GOP conventions are, and decry when a person of color shows up at the podium as unrepresentative of the party. Well, the reality is that Mr. Kerry's campaign is so white you'd lose sight of them in a snow storm.
While Democrats have long claimed to be the party of greater inclusiveness, this year President Bush may argue that his administration is more diverse at senior levels than John Kerry's would be.
Seizing on the nation's diversity -- the country is almost one-third non-white -- Bush has appointed African-Americans, Asians, Latinos and women to senior and non-stereotypical roles: Secretary of State, national security adviser, Transportation Secretary, White House Counsel.
Unlike Al Gore whose campaign manager, political director and finance director were African-American, the Kerry campaign, as of yet, has no one of color in the innermost circle, including Kerry's campaign manager, campaign chairperson, media adviser, policy director, foreign policy adviser, general election manager, convention planner, national finance chairman, and head of VP search team.
Hey, but don't worry minorities of America, the hyper rich John Kerry will still feel your pain. Just make sure to vote for him!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:46 PM EST [Link]
~ I KNEW ALL POLITICIANS ARE THIEVES: But I didn't expect quite so literally. Canadian politician and socialist Svend Robinson admitted today to stealing an expensive piece of jewelry in what he referred to as a moment of "utter irrationality."
Robinson, Canada's first openly gay MP, gained international attention after trying to meet with Yasser Arafat and championing the cause of Palestinians -- the members of a religion who would gladly kill him for his sexual orientation, and his frequent participation in anti-globalization marches. It seems the man who works for the working class has a taste for the finer things in life.
I rarely truly hate politicians but I've always hated this man. He's a self-promoter who has no problem with outright lies if it services his agenda. It should also be noted that the media is proclaiming that Robinson is leaving politics, which is utter hooey. He's merely taking a leave. He'll be back in time to embarass himself and his party soon enough.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:31 PM EST [Link]
~ WELL, YOU DID COPY THE LOOK AFTER ALL: (Via Instapundit) BlogsCanada reports that they are the target of a legal threat by Treasury Canada over the look of their web site. The Government of Canada says it isn't pleased that BlogsCanada's web site looks so much like its own.
In a press release which I am sending out today, I speculate that the Treasury Board may be singling out BlogsCanada for harassment in response to some of the scathing commentary regarding Adscam that we have published on the E-Group blog. I mention in the press release that the E-Group has been attracting quite a bit of traffic and that my referrer logs show a large number of visitors coming from Government of Canada (gc.ca) servers. While I hope that the cease and desist order is not an attempt at censorship, the timing is somewhat suspect.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:50 PM EST [Link]
~ NO NEGOTIATIONS!: Michael Rubin argues in an NRO piece that the U.S. should not be compromising with Iran over the fate of Muqtada al-Sadr and ultimately all of Iraq.
The Iranian government's offer of assistance in Iraq is akin to an arsonist offering his help put out a fire. Even if the Iranian foreign ministry were sincere, it has no more power over Iranian policy than Washington's Department of Motor Vehicles has over U.S. policy. Nevertheless, can engagement with the Iranians — or negotiations with Muqtada al-Sadr — do any harm? They already have. Diplomats and pundits now suggest that U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi might co-opt Muqtada al-Sadr or his proxies into an interim Iraqi government. The lesson for potential populist leaders? Violence works.
Washington's decision to engage the Islamic Republic has undercut liberty and freedom in Iran. Ahmed Batebi, made famous by an Economist cover photograph showing him holding a bloodied shirt during 1999 student demonstrations, remains locked up in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. He and hundreds of other dissidents will see on Iranian state television that, despite Bush's call for freedom, Foggy Bottom and the National Security Council continue to lend legitimacy to an unrepresentative and dictatorial regime. Pundits and diplomats alike argue that engagement encourages reform within Iran's governing clique. But, the Islamic Republic's main concern is not the dichotomy between hardliners and reformers, but rather the challenge a free Iraq poses to the religious legitimacy of the Iranian regime.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:41 PM EST [Link]
~ IT WOULD MAKE THE BRITISH THE MOST TREACHEROUS FRIENDS EVER: Michael Morris wonders if the British are allowing Iranians into Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:35 PM EST [Link]
~ I'D TRUST HIM: CNN reports that a new Osama bin Laden audio tape offers Europe a true.
In the audio tape, the speaker threatens revenge on the United States for the death of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was killed March 22 in an Israeli targeted helicopter attack in Gaza City.
He also refers to the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States and the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings as examples of actions al Qaeda has taken in response to attacks on Muslims.
He offers a "truce" or "non-aggression" to any European country that stops "attacking Muslims," but excludes the United States from any such deal.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:46 AM EST [Link]
~ ARMED IRANIAN AGENTS IN IRAQ?: The National Council of Resistance of Iran, listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, says yes.
Tehran "has sent thousands of troops into Iraq and thousands of arms so as to be able to intervene there better," Mohammad Mohaddessin, head of the NCRI's foreign affairs commission, told reporters in Paris, where it has an office.
"The strategic aim is to secure its domination of this country. It believes it has time on its side," he said through an interpreter, citing unnamed sources within Iran.
I for one wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.
Posted by steve @ 12:03 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, April 14, 2004 I'M NOT CALLING THEM 'FREEDOM MUFFINS': Alec Russell in a Telegraph story that appears tomorrow reports tensions between America and England are surfacing over the issue of Iran.
British officials in Iraq have all but ignored President George Bush's plan to foster a new democracy in the country in favour of their own agenda, according to an American former official in Baghdad's interim government.
His comments mark the first time an official has publicly let the mask of co-operation between the White House and Whitehall slip.
They also highlight the difficulties facing Tony Blair at his meeting with Mr Bush tomorrow when the two leaders will try to plot the transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, which is due in 11 weeks.
Michael Rubin, who resigned from the Pentagon 10 days ago after returning from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad, gave a stark account of fundamental divisions between British and American officials over how to run Iraq.
He suggested that British officials clearly had little interest in pursuing the White House vision of a democratic Iraq, a keystone of its foreign policy, and were too "soft" in confronting dissent.
He also said many US officials had been startled at their British counterparts' attempts to capitalise on their presence in southern Iraq for a "freelance" fostering of ties with Iran, one of Washington's most implacable enemies.
I have to admit that I find those behavior, if its true, quite odd. I'd be interested in seeing how Tony Blair would square this circle given his rhetoric about Iraq.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:18 PM EST [Link]
~ IRELAND AND THE OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL: BlogIrish has an interesting commentary and scads of links related to the Irish connection to the Oil for Food scandal. It isn't pretty.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:19 PM EST [Link]
~ BIG MEDIA STILLS ANOTHER PAGE FROM AMATEURS: The National Post has launched a blog. It's hard to tell whether this will be the same boring "Take no chances" effort that we see from practically every newspaper but one never knows.
Find it here.
Posted by steve @ 11:20 AM EST [Link]
~ WHAT AL-SADR REALLY IS: Salim Mansur has a good article in today's London Free Press about what Muqtada al-Sadr is really trying to do with his uprising in Iraq.
The bid for power by Muqtada al-Sadr, a charlatan and a thug posing as a Shiite cleric with his militia of lumpen elements, was a year in the making.
His attack on American forces in Iraq was a feint to ignite a movement against the ranks of Shiite clergy located in Najaf around Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani.
Senior members of the Iraqi Shiite clergy are fully aware of Muqtada's ambitions and ruthlessness, but they find themselves in a quandary on how to disarm him without being viewed by Iraqis in this volatile situation as American puppets.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:45 AM EST [Link]
~ I SUPPOSE A VISIT BY THE SECRET SERVICE SHOULD BE EXPECTED: A Democratic club in Florida is in hot water with everyone after they placed an ad in a newspaper suggesting that Donald Rumsfeld should be shot.
The ad says of Rumsfeld, "We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say, 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger."
Just imagine if a GOP club had placed that ad...wait, the newspaper would have rejected it...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:55 AM EST [Link]
~ DUBYA'S SPEECH: Well, I suppose I should comment on George W. Bush's performance Tuesday evening given that I ended a phone call with a woman I met this weekend just to watch it. Yeah I know, stupid priorities.
The speech itself I thought was good though I wondered throughout it why he hadn't delivered it last month. These were things that the American people -- and the world for that matter -- needed to hear a while ago. Instead, Bush allowed the media and the Democrats to paint Iraq as another Vietnam and many Americans consequently forgot why the war was fought in the first place: to make the world a safer place.
Overall I thought it was a decent performance and he should do more of them. He's no Ronald Reagan -- when he bothered to do them -- or Bill Clinton but he comes across looking strong and committed.
Where I thought he did a poorer job was during the Q&A. The reporters asked some good tough questions -- questions that a lot of Americans had -- and Bush essentially answered none of them. That said, he stayed on message during the question period which I suppose is a political victory. Where the media does get a failing grade was their persisting in trying to get Bush to admit he made mistakes. Who they working for, the Kerry campaign?
Read the speech here and read the Q&A here.
Posted by steve @ 12:43 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, April 13, 2004 SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in NRO today on the gay marriage debate in Massachusetts after the last constitutional convention on the subject.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 09:53 PM EST [Link]
~ LET'S SEE HOW THE MEDIA PLAYS THIS ONE UP: Janet Reno testified earlier today that she never mentioned al-Qaida in discussions with John Ashcroft but was aware of terrorist cells in the U.S.
During her nearly eight-year tenure as attorney general, Reno said she was briefed on the presence of Al Qaeda within the United States but not on the exact locations of the cells.
"I never focused on just on Al Qaeda because I stood there and watched the [Alfred P.] Murrah building in rubble," Reno said, referring to the deadly 1995 attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City. The blast was pinned on two American men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, but there was rampant speculation at first that it was an act of foreign terrorism.
"You can't jump to conclusions," Reno said. "You can't say that one thing's going to be our overriding issue … We have got to be prepared for terrorism in any form and a focus on one is going to make it difficult."
Louis Freeh also testified today and complained about a lack of funding while brushing away suggestions that the FBI dropped the ball in not detecting the 9/11 plot before it actually occured.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:46 PM EST [Link]
~ IF DENNIS HOPPER HAD TOLD ME THIS FACE TO FACE I WOULDN'T HAVE BELIEVED IT: Dennis Hopper, hero to the 1960s counter culture movement has outed himself publicly as a Republican. Here's a tidbit from Liz Smith's gossip column from today:
DENNIS HOPPER is the "Easy Rider" star-director who grew up surrounded by Democrats. In the '60 he marched with Martin Luther King and protested the Vietnam War.
But did you know that he is now a political conservative and has been since Ronald Reagan? He says, "I liked [Bill] Clinton, but I voted for Bush Sr. And I'm definitely voting for [George W.] Bush again."
Mr. Hopper's wife Victoria is a passionate Democrat who has raised money for John Edwards and John Kerry. Of her Democratic passions, Hopper says to the London Times: "I support Bush and I support my wife and what my wife's involved in. That's all. We don't talk politics. I respect her things, and you know, whether she respects mine doesn't really matter to me."
If you have a feather you can knock me over with it.
Find it here.
Posted by steve @ 02:35 PM EST [Link]
~ NOT ONLY ISN'T IT VIETNAM OR MOGADISHU, IT AIN'T EVEN GROZNY: (Via The Shotgun) Pavel Felgenhauer has an interesting article in today's Moscow Times about how the fighting at Fallujah hasn't turned into a Grozny-style scenario with American soldiers essentially levelling the city in order to get at the insurgents.
The Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah outnumbered the Marines and were armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, RPG-7 antitank grenade launchers and mortars. Chechen fighters used the same weapons in Grozny in 1995, 1996 and 2000, killing thousands of Russian soldiers and destroying hundreds of armored vehicles.
Just like the Russians in Grozny, the Marines last week were supported by tanks and attack helicopters, but the end result was entirely different. U.S. forces did not bomb the city indiscriminately. The Iraqis fought well but were massacred. According to the latest body count, some 600 Iraqis died and another 1,000 were wounded. The Marines lost some 20 men.
The Marines are far better trained, of course, but the Iraqis were fighting in their hometown. The decisive difference between the two sides was the extensive use of a computerized command, control and targeting system by the U.S. military. Satellites, manned and unmanned aircraft collected precise information on enemy and friendly movements on the battlefield night and day.
Perhaps, but as people pointed out, all of this amazing firepower was essentially aimed at people who don't have a particularly large amount of military training. Sure, you have some Ba'athist elements and likely some former soldiers but for the most part these insurgents are untrained militia. More important, however, is what I wrote over at The Shotgun's comments section:
You know, as good as those numbers are, they remind me of Mogadishu.
The rates are similar to those during the Blackhawk Down incident in which up to 1 000 Somalians were killed/wounded compared to 18 U.S. soldiers. The problem isn't how many you kill, but how many you can stand of your own being killed.
Another way to look at it is how much is life valued by each side. The life of an American soldier is worth more than that of an Iraqi, something that the insurgents bank on. By that I don't mean that Iraqis are subhumans or anything, I just mean that there are fewer Americans and a death impacts the Coalition more than the death of an Iraqi impacts the insurgents. It's quite clear that they are willing to expend quite a few of their lives in order to infliect a few on the Americans.
So the big question is, are the Americans and the rest of the Coalition willing to gut out relatively few losses in order to maintain their hold or will the home front begin to look a slow trickle of casualities and begin to lose their nerve?
And that is the big question. On a military level, trading one live for every 50 to 80 casualities you inflict on the other side is an amazing "return on investment" but civilians don't tend to look at it that way. They only see a few body bags, hear the word "quagmire" and come to the conclusion that things are going bad. And, to make an obvious point, there are more Ira
