Musings Archive August 2004
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 SOON WE'LL BE MIFFED: Canada moved from being "disturbed" about one of its citizens being beaten to death by Iranian torturers to not ruling out sanctions.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Tuesday that Canada has not ruled out sanctions against Iran to protest the death in custody of a Quebec-based photojournalist.
Pettigrew, who was on his first visit to the European Union as Canada's new foreign affairs minister, said he discussed the case of slain Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi with EU counterparts during two days of meetings in Brussels.
"I raised it in every one of my meetings," Pettigrew said after meeting Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.
Pettigrew met with EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to discuss Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pettigrew said that he was "exchanging and comparing notes" with the EU about what Canada and Europe could do to improve human rights in Iran, including possible diplomatic action in the Kazemi case.
Right now we're mulling over sanctions. The next step in the Canadian Guide to Diplomacy is "possibly considering thinking about maybe issuing a stronger statement." Don't make Canada angry or we'll go Raffi on your ass.
Posted by steve @ 06:29 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH: The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have released a new letter calling on John Kerry to clarify or apologize for his actions and statements since returning from Vietnam. I don't think they should expect to receive a response.
Dear Senator Kerry:
As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them.
We urge you to:
1. Apologize for your conduct once you returned from Vietnam. Your exaggerated testimony before the US Senate; the blanket indictment of your fellow veterans; throwing away medals and ribbons; all of these actions dishonored America and the armed forces. Your rhetoric and actions were not only wrong, they aided the enemy and brought great pain to POW's, veterans and their families.2. Clarify the conflicting accounts involving the Bay Hap River incident of March 13, 1969 (Bronze Star and 3rd Purple Heart). You have now described three different versions of this incident. In the first version of this incident presented during the Democrat National Convention, you stated: "No man left behind," suggesting to the American people that you alone stayed on the river to rescue Mr. Rassmann. Later, when forced to acknowledge conflicting eyewitness testimony from fellow swift boat veterans, you said that your boat left the scene to return moments later to retrieve Jim Rassmann from the water. Yet, in another version of the same incident discovered in the Congressional Record, you reported that your boat struck a mine and Rassmann fell off the boat. Mr. Kerry, please explain to your fellow veterans and the American people which version is the truth.
3. Affirm that the injuries for which you received your purple hearts never required any medical treatment beyond perhaps a bandage and that, in all instances, these injuries were self-inflicted and came from your own weapon. Further, that if any of these purple hearts were falsely awarded, that you would not have been eligible to leave Vietnam after serving only four months.
4. Acknowledge what your own biographer is now saying, that the Christmas in Cambodia claim is "obviously wrong," that you were never in Cambodia over Christmas or any other time during your brief, four-month tour in Vietnam and that your statements before the United States Senate in 1986 were false.
If you undertake these steps we will be satisfied that the American public has been sufficiently apprised as to these aspects of your career, and we will discontinue the media advertisements you have sought so fervently to silence.
Please know that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are eager to close our own personal chapters on Vietnam and instead focus on the war we're currently fighting-the ongoing war on terrorism. In the absence of full public disclosure and a public apology, we will continue efforts to carry our message to an ever-expanding base of grassroots supporters.
Senator Kerry, we want to get Vietnam behind us. But, we can only do so if the truth is told.
We respectfully await your reply.
Sincerely,
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
Posted by steve @ 06:16 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ I SPOKE TOO SOON: Last night I stated that the world wasn't collapsing if a couple of moderate Republicans spoke at the RNC but it appears that not everyone shares that view. Apparently yesterday saw right-wing protests in addition to the expected left-wing screamfest.
Carrying signs that suggest the open-party policy of the GOP is allowing abortion-rights supporters and other moderate voters to sway the party's direction, the atypical protesters outside Madison Square Garden argued that "a tent divided will not stand."
"Hasta La Vista Pro-Abort GOP," read one protester's sign. "Babies Die in Big Tent GOP" stated another. Demonstrators chanted: "Rudy Giuliani is a poison to the party."
The activists say they want the party to take a harder line on abortion and gay rights. They slammed the convention and its lineup of moderate speakers like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Dudes, lighten up. You have a president who is pretty socially conservative and that's the guy you're voting for. Do you seriously believe the Republican Party is going to drop the pro-life plank from its platform just because a couple of moderates like Rudy Giuliani speak at the convention?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:27 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ UMMM, YEAH, I'D BET ON THAT HAPPENING: The people in charge of America's upcoming presidential election are hoping....no, praying...that whoever wins in November wins big.
State and county election officials from around the country are praying that this year's presidential race ends with a wider margin of victory than it did four years ago when George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida by only 547 votes. A close victory this year would likely result in more charges of voter fraud and calls for recounts, two things that election officials don't relish.
Election officials are under siege this year, due to problems with voter registration lists in 2000, electronic voting machines and reported conflicts of interest among the makers of voting machines and elected officials.
"Voter groups, partisan groups, campaign groups, lawyers groups and news media are descending upon us this year," said Doug Lewis, host of the conference and director of the Election Center, a nonprofit organization that trains election officials nationwide.
"If election 2000 was under a microscope, this one's probably under an electron microscope," he told the audience.
Get ready for a storm Mr. Lewis.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:20 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ CAN THE "WAR ON TERRORISM" BE WON?
Can crime be prevented and reduced to zero? Can disease be eliminated? Can death be excluded from life experience? Can birth defects be reduced to zero? Can tooth cavities be prevented?
Only if you are a left-wing nutcase polyanna. The Democrats immediately attacked President Bush for saying that we may not win the war on terrorism. The President was being realistic, recognizing that eliminating every terrorist or terrorist organization in the world is impossible. His goal, our goal, is to reduce terrorism as much as is reasonably achievable. To say that we can win the war on terrorism, that we can eradicate every vestige, thought and action related to terrorism would be a lie, a lie that would make free countries over-confident and susceptible to devastating attack. Which is the more responsible action -- to tell people the unvarnished, even unpleasant truth? or to feed the country some feel-good mush?
Story at CNSNews.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:48 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ HEAVEN IS FULL OF CHOPPERS: Sad news today: Famed chopper designer Indian Larry died this weekend after falling from his motorcycle during a stunt. You can visit his official web site here.
Posted by steve @ 11:19 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ NOW THAT WASN'T SO BAD, WAS IT?: When it was announced that people like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger were going to be speaking at the RNC this week I got a flood of emails from people decrying the "moderatization" of the convention. They're RINOs! They'll ruin the party!
Right.
Look, despite my libertarian leanings I don't much agree with Giuliani and Schwarzenegger on a lot of issues. A lot of Americans do, however, and if you don't get the point of a nominating convention, here it is: You make your party more attractive then the other guy's party. Not so hard, right? Along the way you feature different voices to show how inclusive you cats are and how you represent more than just a narrow ideological category and you hope to reap a bounty of votes. Remember how well that culture war thing played out a couple of elections ago? Yeah, exactly.
At any rate, I have to say that Giuliani did a good job tonight. He struck the right balance between being aggressive and gracious and I'll bet he made a good impression on a lot of people who aren't sure who they're voting for. In the real world we term it "trying to win elections."
James Lileks was also impressed by Rudy G, stating that "It was like watching a blacksmith at work while he whistled opera."
Ann Althouse has a roundup of Day 1 at the RNC.
Posted by steve @ 12:45 AM EST [Link] [2 comments]
Monday, August 30, 2004 AN ODE TO MILOSZ: Christopher Hitchens penned a beautiful essay about Czeslaw Milosz in today's Slate that you absolutely must read. When Hitchens gets it wrong he is so very wrong, but when he gets it right, few can top him.
Posted by steve @ 07:08 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ TIME TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET: We're here! We're conservative! The Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas today announced their first Conservative Coming Out Day.
Calling all young conservatives to come out of the closet, the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas (YCT-UT) today announced plans for a Conservative Coming Out Day, to be held on the West Mall at The University of Texas. The event will take place on Wednesday, September 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Conservative Coming Out Day is a day that the young conservative minority on campus will be able to celebrate their political views freely and without fear of criticism,” said Lauren Conner, chairman of YCT-UT.
The event will feature rainbow colored banners, fliers, and stickers that read, “I’m a Conservative, and I have a right to my opinion too,” and “I’m a Conservative Ally, and I support a Conservative’s right to his opinion.” Large sounding boards will be available for conservatives and non-conservatives alike to show their support for the young conservative’s right to his beliefs.
“YCT believes that the process of coming out as conservative begins as a student learns more about his true self and becomes comfortable with his own political identity. It can be a confusing and frustrating time because there is a lot of pressure from students and professors on campus to adhere to the liberal way of thinking,” said Conner. “Being conservative, however, is merely a way for the student to express who he is, and the challenge is for him to accept this part of himself.”
Without fear of criticism? What, are they new?
Posted by steve @ 04:47 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ FIXING THE GOP: (via Hit and Run) David Brooks had a lengthy and fascinating article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine about how best to fix the Republican Party.
As Jacob Sallum points out, however, Brooks' goal seems to be making Big Government a fixture of the Republican Party. If Republicans really only differ from Democrats by the extent to which they would expand government, what would the point be in voting Republican? You get where you want to go by driving faster.
America needs at least one mainstream political party that fights for limited government, even if only in lip service to their alleged ideals.
Posted by steve @ 12:23 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]
~ JUST GET OF BILL MOYERS AND YOU'LL BE A LOT MORE CONSERVATIVE: Is PBS caving in to conservatives or is it trying to be more inclusive? That's the debate going on today because a handful of conservatives now have television shows on America's public broadcaster.
The evidence, they say, is in a series of ominous lineup changes. In are conservatives such as Tucker and Gigot and possibly cultural commentator Michael Medved. Out is liberal icon Bill Moyers, who is retiring from "Now With Bill Moyers" after the election, although the program will continue in a shorter format.
"I definitely think that PBS is trying to appease conservative critics in Congress," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, who calls PBS president Pat Mitchell "the captain of the noncommercial Titanic. Instead of throwing people overboard, she's grabbing conservatives on board."
Public broadcasting executives studiously avoid using the words "liberal" or "conservative." But they acknowledge an interest in "diversity."
If it means less Peter, Paul and Mary reunion concerts I'm all for more tokenism.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:28 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ I WOULD HAVE HAD A STIFF DRINK: The far left continues to talk about George W. Bush's immediate reaction after learning of the 9/11 attacks -- reading a short story to school children -- but Michelle Malkin links to some responses, including what FDR did after learning of Pearl Harbour.
Posted by steve @ 11:15 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Sunday, August 29, 2004 ISRAEL, THE U.S. AND SPIES: Saul Singer weighs in on the Larry Franklin story, the Pentagon staffer being investigated for possibly spying against the U.S. on behalf of Israel. Singer argues that there are bigger things at stake.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:55 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ IT'S EASIER TO BE GAY THEN REPUBLICAN IN HOLLYWOOD: Would you believe that Adam Sandler is a Republican? How about Freddie Prinze, Jr.? According to a story in Details, the list of Hollywood Republicans might surprise you.
Posted by steve @ 03:09 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ SELF PROMO(S) ALERT: Feel free to check out my review of America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power over at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
Sticking to Florida, if you live in St. Petersburg, pick up the Times for a review of Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It. Or read it here.
Posted by steve @ 02:57 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Saturday, August 28, 2004 SO MANY QUESTIONS: Professor Glenn has a roundup of links concerning new issues surrounding John Kerry's medal citations.
What I'd like to know is how a "V" was affixed to John Kerry's Silver Star when everyone knows that you can only get one affixed to a Bronze Star? Seriously, no one questioned this?
Posted by steve @ 06:50 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ ARE THE NEOCONS BREAKING UP WITH THE REST OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT?: Tim Carney asks that question in a fine piece over at Brainwash
Posted by antle @ 05:13 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]
~ REMEMBER, TENS OF THOUSANDS VOTED FOR HER: I forgot to blog this yesterday but I wanted to provide something for Musings' American readers to get angry about. Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish, who made headlines last year calling Americans "bastards", has done it again.
Liberal backbench MP Carolyn Parrish refuses to back down from comments she made earlier this week when she called Americans "a coalition of the idiots," in reference to the U.S. missile defence plan.
"I think you apologize when you're absolutely convinced you've made a serious error. I don't think I have," Parrish said on Canada AM Friday.
She said being a former English teacher, she looked in the dictionary to make sure her comments were appropriate.
"I looked up the word (idiot) and it means lacking in common sense, lacking in knowledge, and that's exactly what the Canadian public is facing," she said.
A question for my American friends: Why do you persist in believing that we are your allies? At any rate, I looked in my dictionary to make sure my comments were appropriate. Ms. Parrish, you are a bitch. My dictionary says that means "a malicious, unpleasant, selfish woman." Fits, doesn't it?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:10 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Friday, August 27, 2004 SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record about Paul Martin's proposed "peacekeeping brigade", the creation of which I charge will gut the rest of the Canadian Armed Forces. If you live in Kitchener-Waterloo feel free to pick up a copy (it will surely appreciate in value) or read it after the break.
[more]
Posted by steve @ 01:38 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ HIS SALUTE IS INSULTING
Mona Charen, in her latest column "Kerry's jaundiced view of America", available at Townhall.com, makes the case that John Kerry's claims about Viet Nam are false, yet never repudiated by the candidate.Her final line regarding Kerry, "His salute is insulting", is accurate, yet incomplete.
I am a 27 year veteran of the Navy. My Viet Nam experience is limited to 48 hours in Viet Nam waters, submerged on a submarine -- enough to qualify for a Viet Nam Service Medal, and a tax-free month for pay. I'm no hero, just a dedicated sailor and officer who did his duty.Everyday I learn something new and more disgusting about John Kerry.
Veterans like me, those on active duty and retired are more than insulted by his phoney salute at the DNC. We are insulted to be sure. We are also disgusted, offended, upset, hurt, appalled, sickened, and revolted. We sincerely believe that Kerry committed treason and gave aid and comfort to the enemy. He betrayed those who served, not just in Viet Nam, but all those who served in defense of freedom. He betrayed his crew by abandoning them after he finagled his third Purple Heart. He betrayed every POW by providing the enemy with the propaganda to use against them.
John Kerry's 4 months in Viet Nam do not qualify him to be president. His total military service does not qualify him to be Commander-in-Chief of our military. His 30 years of experience in being anti-American, anti-defense, anti-military completely disqualify him from any position of responsibility in the current war to defeat terrorism and protect our country.cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:23 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ MY CANADIAN VALUES DON'T INCLUDE CENSORSHIP: Controversial Quebec radio station CHOI-FM received a reprieve from the CRTC on Thursday, one day before it was essentially going to go off the air. The CRTC -- Canada's version of the FCC -- had declined to renew the station's licence because it had used the airwaves to "protect Canadian values."
The CRTC's move to take CHOI off the air was a rare one. This was the first time since its creation in 1968 that it decided not to renew the licence of a Canadian radio station because of controversial comments by on-air staff.
In its ruling, the CRTC said the "station's hosts were relentless in their use of the public airwaves to insult and ridicule people."
CHOI has been the target of 92 complaints since it was purchased by Genex Communications in 1997.
Most were focused on a weekday morning show hosted by Jean-Francois Fillion that included a segment by controversial radio personality Andre Arthur.
Among the show's more explosive comments were remarks by the pair harassing a rival radio host implicated in a teen prostitution ring, making disparaging comments about African students at Laval University, and calling for the gassing of psychiatric patients.
Fillion may be a toad but I don't believe the government should have the right to determine what Canadian values are and whether they have been stepped on. And as the Western Standard reports in their August 30 issue, the CRTC's decisions in recent years have struck many as promoting an old boy network mentality, with rules and decisions handed down to benefit friends of the body's governing elite.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:33 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
~ ATTENTION ANTI-SEMITES: Fred Reed has had enough of your diatribes about how the Jews run the world in conjunction with the Illuminati. Please e-mail someone else.
Posted by antle @ 12:28 AM EST [Link] [2 comments]
~ GET YOURSELF A JUICY HAMBURGER: Because there is a new Kerry's House of Ketchup up at The American Mind.
Posted by steve @ 12:24 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Thursday, August 26, 2004 MORE VETS COME OUT AGAINST KERRY: That Kerry boy seems to have made so many people mad at him. Another group of Vietnam veterans is coming out against the presidential wannabe, this time those who were POWs while he was running around calling GIs baby killers.
To aid their campaign, the group plans on releasing a DVD movie.
"Stolen Honor" investigates how John Kerry’s actions during the Vietnam era impacted the treatment of American soldiers and POWs. Using John Kerry’s own words, the documentary juxtaposes John Kerry’s actions with the words of veterans who were still in Vietnam when John Kerry was leading the anti-war movement.
Is Max Cleland going to throw down at them as well?
You can watch clips from the documentary at their web site.
Posted by steve @ 02:51 PM EST [Link]
~ STRIFE CONTINUES IN IRAN: Although the world's press has its attention focused on working to discredit former soldiers trying to discredit a former soldier whose trying to discredit a former soldier, there are other stories.
Fierces clashes have been reported across Iran and the city Ganaveh witnessed several thousand protesters knock heads with government forces.
Posted by steve @ 02:43 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, August 25, 2004 A CHARM VACUUM: Dana Stevens caught John Kerry on last night's Daily Show and was far from impressed.
From the moment the senator appeared and sat down on the gray sofa where, just last week, Bill Clinton basked in the audience's applause like a cat lapping up cream, Kerry's charisma was less than zero: It was negative. He was a charm vacuum, forced to actually borrow mojo from audience members. He was a dessicated husk, a tin man who really didn't have a heart. His lack of vibrancy, his utter dearth of sex appeal made Al Gore look like Charo. (I've always found Al Gore sort of hot, actually, like a stuffy high school principal just begging to be broken down. But I have some issues with authority.)
This despite the fact that Jon Stewart treated him like a kid brother with almost fawning questions. I'm almost anticipating a debate between Kerry and Dubya.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:56 PM EST [Link]
~ IT SEEMS EVERYONE WAS IN CAMBODIA EXCEPT FOR ME: The latest wrinkle in the Kerry-Cambodia kerfuffle? John O'Neill, one of the co-authors of Unfit for Command says he was in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Professor Glenn says, however, that O'Neill's claims are a little more plausible. For one thing, O'Neill was in Cambodia at a time when Richard Nixon admitted there were incursions.
Posted by steve @ 04:37 PM EST [Link]
~ MUNCIE MAYOR DECIDES TO STOP BEING HORSE'S REAR: After more than a little unflattering press attention and the fact that American soldiers are fighting in Iraq, the mayor of Muncie, Indiana announced Tuesday that he has lifted the city's ban on American flags in a city-run campground.
In an open letter to campers at Prairie Creek Campgrounds, Mayor Dan Canan said he was reversing his prohibition on all flags.
"I sincerely apologize to you for any inconvenience or stress this issue has caused," Canan wrote. "Men and women have fought and died for our flag and my decision was wrong."
Police officers distributed notices of the city's complete flag ban on Monday to those at the campground along Prairie Creek Reservoir about 10 miles southeast of Muncie. That order from Canan broadened a previous rule that had exempted the U.S. flag and POW/MIA flags.
Canan said Monday he had consulted with attorneys and decided to widen the ban to bolster the city's defense against a lawsuit filed by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.
Canan, however, changed his stance following protests from campers and others.
"I now realize my decision was made in haste and was an error on my part," Canan's today letter said. "Since the issue of the memo I have painstakingly reflected on the issue surrounding the policy and I regret yesterday's action."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:13 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 IT'S BECAUSE YOU EXPECT THE MEDIA TO REPORT THE WHOLE STORY: The media is abuzz about several members of the Iraqi national soccer team blasting the Bush administration for the Iraq War but few of them mention several salient points. Jonathon Last takes them to task for that.
Posted by steve @ 03:24 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT MEANS I STILL MIGHT GET A MEDAL: Interesting story in today's FrontPageMagazine about John Kerry's Silver Star citation.
Now, on the heels of yet another revelation—that Kerry’s DD 214 (“Report of Transfer or Separation”), displayed on his website, shows his Silver Star embellished with an unauthorized “V” for valor—which makes it facially false and at variance with official government records (see our article, John Kerry’s Mysterious Combat “V”)—it has come to light that his Silver Star award is fraught with other peculiarities.
In the United States military, the process of awarding a medal begins with preparation of a form prescribed by official regulations. The current Navy form (OPNAV 1650/3, “Personal Award Recommendation”), substantively identical to the one in use during John Kerry’s time in Vietnam thirty years ago, provides that when an award is recommended, attached to that recommendation is a “proposed citation.” A citation, in essence, is a narrative description of the “service” that the recipient performed to warrant the award. In other words, the citation explains why the award was made and in what way it was earned. (The regulations pertaining to Personal Award Recommendations also reccomend that combat awards be supported by at least two witnesses.)
Here’s where it gets puzzling. Lieutenant John Kerry’s award for the Silver Star has—not one citation, but three—an unheard of number for a single award.
And there's more on top of that. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:17 PM EST [Link]
Monday, August 23, 2004 STEM-CELL LESSONS: Professor Hadley Arkes endeavors to teach John Kerry some basic facts about embryonic stem-cell research. It's a lecture worth considering.
Posted by antle @ 08:42 PM EST [Link]
~ HARPER'S - THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE PSYCHIC FRIENDS' NETWORK?: Jacob Sullum over at Hit and Run points out an odd bit of clairvoyance from Lewis Lapham in Harper's: He is analyzing speeches he claims to have heard that have yet to be delivered at a Republican Convention that has yet to take place.
Dionne Warwick? Miss Cleo? Are you listening?
Posted by antle @ 08:22 PM EST [Link]
~ SOMETHING MAKES ME THINK IT WON'T BE AS GOOD AS THE PASSION WAS: Proving that Hollywood can pick over any corpse for new material, it's been announced that Ellen DeGeneres will play God in a remake of the 1977 flick "Oh, God!"
Talking about the idea to cast her in the role made famous by George Burns, producer Jerry Weintraub told Variety: "Ellen is a strong comedienne and she has always done material about God and questions about God. She will help us with the writing, and using her will allow us to do a proper 2005 view of 'Oh, God!' that is hip and modern."
Hip and modern are two words I certainly associate with DeGeneres. The original wasn't Hamlet but it was funny (God: "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me me."). Why does it need to be remade?
Posted by steve @ 01:42 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M OUTRAGED: That a soldier who once served during war time with someone now running for president would turn around and question their former compatriot's war wounds. This has never happened before!
Posted by steve @ 01:30 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT A DAY: According to three separate emails that arrived today, I have won a total of US$5.5 million in international lotteries. I mean, what are the odds to win just one lottery and I hit three separate ones?
So what am I going to do with the money? Wine, women and song!
Posted by steve @ 01:23 PM EST [Link]
~ HITTING HOLIDAY ROAD: If you receive our weekly updates you may already know that we're off for a week. The issue that went up earlier today will be online until September 5.
So what is Steve going to do over this next week? I'm glad you asked. A lot of reading, a lot of writing and a little socializing. I was even thinking about a slight redesign of ESR's front page thanks to some fine suggestions by our staff. Work and play. I'll still be blogging of course...I can't let the place get any cobwebs...
Posted by steve @ 01:19 PM EST [Link]
~ NO TEARS FOR YOU!: Seems some Germans are still bitching about the planned U.S. withdrawn from Germany. One day America is evil for taking out Saddam Hussein, the next day everyone is crying because German jobs will be lost.
Davids Medienkritik has an excerpt of an article here.
Posted by steve @ 11:41 AM EST [Link]
~ TROLL TROLL TROLL: "Interesting" piece in yesterday's New York Times that I missed until this morning. Seems there is a difference between liberals and conservatives after all.
A few months before retiring from public office in 2002, the House majority leader Dick Armey caused a mini-scandal when he announced during a speech in Florida, ''Liberals are, in my estimation, just not bright people.'' The former economics professor went on to clarify that liberals were drawn to ''occupations of the heart,'' while conservatives favored ''occupations of the brain,'' like economics or engineering.
The odd thing about Armey's statement was that it displayed a fuzzy, unscientific understanding of the brain itself: our most compassionate (or cowardly) feelings are as much a product of the brain as ''rational choice'' economic theory is. They just emanate from a different part of the brain -- most notably, the amygdala, the almond-shaped body that lies below the neocortex, in an older brain region sometimes called the limbic system. Studies of stroke victims, as well as scans of normal brains, have persuasively shown that the amygdala plays a key role in the creation of emotions like fear or empathy.
If amygdala activity is a reliable indication of emotional response, a fascinating possibility opens up: turning Armey's muddled poetry into a testable hypothesis. Do liberals ''think'' with their limbic system more than conservatives do? As it happens, some early research suggests that Armey might have been on to something after all.
As The Times reported not long ago, a team of U.C.L.A. researchers analyzed the neural activity of Republicans and Democrats as they viewed a series of images from campaign ads. And the early data suggested that the most salient predictor of a ''Democrat brain'' was amygdala activity responding to certain images of violence: either the Bush ads that featured shots of a smoldering ground zero or the famous ''Daisy'' ad from Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 campaign that ends with a mushroom cloud. Such brain activity indicates a kind of gut response, operating below the level of conscious control.
Could the U.C.L.A. researchers be creating the political science of the future? Consider this possibility: the scientists do an exhaustive survey and it turns out that liberal brains have, on average, more active amygdalas than conservative ones. It's a plausible outcome that matches some of our stereotypes about liberal values: an aversion to human suffering, an unwillingness to rationalize capital punishment and military force, a fondness for candidates who like to feel our pain.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:28 AM EST [Link]
~ FUNNY, I THOUGHT HE WAS A DEMOCRAT: A few days ago Alice Cooper blasted rock musicians who supported John Kerry, calling it treason. Yes, Alice Cooper.
In the eyes of Alice Cooper, all the rock stars campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry are guilty of one thing: treason. The shock-rock legend, a staunch Republican who attends NBA games in Phoenix with Arizona Senator John McCain, was disgusted when he learned of plans by Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, R.E.M. and other bands to hold a series of concerts aimed at unseating U.S. President George W. Bush.
"To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics," says the 56-year-old Cooper, who begins a 15-city Canadian tour on Aug. 20 in Thunder Bay, Ont.
"When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I'd run to my room and put on the Rolling Stones as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick.
Another surprise in the article? Britney Spears is voting Bush. Huh?
Posted by steve @ 01:44 AM EST [Link]
~ WILL THEY CALL HIM A CHICKENHAWK?: Former senator Bob Dole questioned on Sunday John Kerry's Vietnam wounds and his stories about his service.
Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for the current situation, in which polls show him losing support among veterans.
"One day he's saying that we were shooting civilians, cutting off their ears, cutting off their heads, throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam," said Dole, whose World War II wounds left him without the use of his right arm.
Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:37 AM EST [Link]
~ COOL STORY OF THE DAY: Come for the war, stay for the woman. A U.S. Army reservist has married a woman he met in Baghdad while serving in Iraq.
Robert Hall, 23, says he knew within a month that he would marry Vivian Mansour, 21, of Baghdad, even though at first neither spoke a word of each other's language.
Hall, an Army reservist who earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service during his one-year tour, said he's never been happier. The two were married here Saturday.
"I never in my life saw this coming," he said.
For them, cultural differences are offset by a shared Christian faith. Mansour is a Kurdish Christian -- a population that makes up just 3 percent of Iraq's 24 million people.
"It's such a learning experience," Hall said. "Our cultures are different, but the way we look at it is, we're both children of God."
Good luck to the both of them.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:32 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, August 21, 2004 DREAM TEAM OR NIGHTMARE?: The U.S. Olympic basketball team faces yet another embarrassing loss. Even in its weakened form, the erstwhile Dream Team is in contention for the gold. But what about four, eight or twelve years from now?
The inclusion of professional athletes on the basketball team was supposed to make the U.S. unbeatable. How long can that track record be maintained as the NBA's standards continue to decline?
Posted by antle @ 10:01 PM EST [Link]
~ KEYES NOT PICKING OBAMA'S LOCK ON SENATE RACE: The fact that Alan Keyes is shifting his positions on slavery reparations and abolishing the Department of Agriculture shows that he is actually trying to win this Senate race. The first shift is designed to reach out to black voters; the second is to make a Keyes candidacy more palatable to farmers.
This poll, however, shows that it isn't doing much good.
Posted by antle @ 01:35 PM EST [Link]
~ MALKIN VS. MATTHEWS: On the subject of the Swiftboat Vets, I wouldn't want ESR's Musings to be the only site in the blogosphere not to discuss the dust-up between Michelle Malkin and Chris Matthews on "Hardball" the other night.
The consensus on the right seems to be that Matthews was a jerk while the consensus on the left is predictably that Malkin got what she deserved. Ah, an election year in our wild and wacky 50-50 nation (apologies to Bruce Walker for my use of this disputed descriptor).UPDATE: Larry Auster has been writing to figures in conservative opinion journalism to caution them against going over the top in making the "self-inflicted wounds" charges against Kerry.
Posted by antle @ 12:50 PM EST [Link]
Friday, August 20, 2004 ROUND TWO: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have launched a new commercial attacking John Kerry's Vietnam record, this time dealing with Kerry’s verbal attacks on many of his shipmates during testimony from Kerry to the US Senate in 1971. The ad features reaction from his former Vietnam War comrades. It's probably even harsher than the previous ad because it's Kerry's own words that sink him.
Given what a lot of POWs had to suffer with after Kerry's testimony, I can understand why they're angry. I can't even imagine being tortured while having Kerry's words being read out to you.
Watch the new ad, "Sellout", here.
[Update - 7:05pm] Boy, if Kerry had just ignored these guys, this story would have disappeared but by going after the group so hard he's only managed to spread the story even faster. The latest genius move from the Kerry braintrust? Filing a complaint with the FEC charging that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is linked to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
John Kerry is too stupid to be president.
Posted by steve @ 06:54 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S NOT THE SAME: ESR chum Porphyrogenitus is back with another post. Yesterday he wrote a lengthy entry about his experiences in Basic Combat Training today compared to when he first underwent it back in 1987. The comparison isn't a good one.
The good: This time around, most of our Drill Sergeants had combat experience, something that was not the case in ’87. The aforementioned Sgt. Schwanke, for example, had been in Panama, Desert Storm I, and in Somalia. He was on the scene in a helicopter during the “Blackhawk Down” incident, and knew MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randal Shughart, America’s most recent Medal of Honor recipients. The experience they had gave them some greater authority when they taught us what we needed to know that could save our lives on the battlefield some day.
That’s the best I can say about Basic Training today, and it is a Big Thing. However, whatever you may have read about Basic Combat Training deteriorating is pretty much true. Almost all of this is the result of directives from on high and restrictions placed on the Drill Sergeants, rather than a fault of the Drill Sergeants themselves. However, I do think that, however much they emphasized the contrary, Drill Sergeants today, like so many authority figures in our society these days, would rather be liked than feared. A lot of them let us get away with too much indiscipline, and were too solicitous of the malcontents. But, again, it’s hard to tell how much of that was them, and how much came from above their pay-grade, as several times the Captain intervened to prevent a soldier from being punished, giving not only second, but third and fourth chances to people when it wasn’t warranted. Indeed, there was a directive from the TRADOC Commander that no soldier be released from Basic Training till after five weeks, which meant that we carried on our roster one particular soldier who obviously wasn’t going to pass for that time, and beyond (because they didn’t even start out-processing till after then). This (non-)soldier pretty much spent that entire period on and off profile, not training, but eating with, hanging out with, sleeping in the bay with, and more or less disrupting the unit. There was also another soldier that had a similar impact, but that started later.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:08 PM EST [Link]
~ I STILL WOULDN'T VOTE FOR HIM: A lot of people believe that the war on terror is the single most important issue facing the Western world today. So much so that it trumps every single other issue. I disagree, I think that the war is the highest priority, but it does not trump other important issues. Example? The U.S. economy is headed for a structural breakdown in a few decades time (or possibly sooner) because of the trillions in unfunded liabilities associated with Medicare, Medicade and Social Security. That's pretty darned important.
Over in Old Blighty, that issue is also important. A lot of American conservatives love Tony Blair because of his support during the war -- and that's a debt that can't easily be repaid considering the damage that Blair's career has taken -- but we all have to remember that he's also a leftist. Few conservatives would support Blair's economic and social agenda.
Well, it turns out America's Democrats don't care much for Blair (that war thing again) despite the fact they would support his agenda and they're making their feelings known to Labour members who visit the U.S.
Out on the stump in Brooklyn with Democrat Congressional hopeful Frank Barbero came a chance to talk to the footsoldiers in an election that all agree is the most important in decades. America is polarised between red and blue - or, as some Democrats whisper, between progressive America and a revived Confederacy.
With George, the Vietnam vet turned transit worker, and Jeff Gold, the eternally optimistic full-time organiser, we leafleted passersby outside Tiffany's Diner, a hangout for hangover recoverers on any Sunday lunchtime. "The response is good this time," said Jeff. "It's close, it's important and everyone knows it. It's also beginning to turn dirty." But Barbero, who helped drive the Mob out of the docks as a union man, had one question for me: "Tony Blair! When ya gettin' rid of him?"
Interesting stuff, read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:42 PM EST [Link]
~ INTERVIEW WITH SWIFT BOAT VET: Human Events has posted an interview with John O'Neill, a Swift Boat veteran and co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Interesting stuff.
Posted by steve @ 01:32 PM EST [Link]
~ ME AND KAUS WERE IN CAMBODIA IN '69: While denying that he was in Cambodia at any time during his life, Mickey Kaus mulls over some of the details of the ongoing story.
Posted by steve @ 10:37 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, August 19, 2004 SLINGING MUD: The Washington Post finally begins investigating the Kerry-Cambodia story but instead of looking into John Kerry's claims, they instead attack one of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth!
Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.
In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.
But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."
Well, Thurlow has responded:
I am convinced that the language used in my citation for a Bronze Star was language taken directly from John Kerry’s report which falsely described the action on the Bay Hap River as action that saw small arms fire and automatic weapons fire from both banks of the river.
To this day, I can say without a doubt in my mind, along with other accounts from my shipmates-there was no hostile enemy fire directed at my boat or at any of the five boats operating on the river that day.
I submitted no paperwork for a medal nor did I file an after action report describing the incident. To my knowledge, John Kerry was the only officer who filed a report describing his version of the incidents that occurred on the river that day.
It was not until I had left the Navy-approximately three months after I left the service-that I was notified that I was to receive a citation for my actions on that day.
I believed then as I believe now that I received my Bronze Star for my efforts to rescue the injured crewmen from swift boat number three and to conduct damage control to prevent that boat from sinking.
My boat and several other swift boats went to the aid of our fellow swift boat sailors whose craft was adrift and taking on water. We provided immediate rescue and damage control to prevent boat three from sinking and to offer immediate protection and comfort to the injured crew.
After the mine exploded, leaving swift boat three dead in the water, John Kerry’s boat, which was on the opposite side of the river, fled the scene.
US Army Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann, who was on Kerry’s boat at the time, fell off the boat and into the water. Kerry’s boat returned several minutes later-under no hail of enemy gunfire-to retrieve Rassmann from the river only seconds before another boat was going to pick him up.
Kerry campaign spokespersons have conflicting accounts of this incident-the latest one being that Kerry’s boat did leave but only briefly and returned under withering enemy fire to rescue Mr. Rassmann. However, none of the other boats on the river that day reported enemy fire nor was anyone wounded by small arms action. The only damage on that day was done to boat three-a result of the underwater mine. None of the other swift boats received damage from enemy gunfire.
And in a new development, Kerry campaign officials are now finally acknowledging that while Kerry’s boat left the scene, none of the other boats on the river ever left the damaged swift boat. This is a direct contradiction to previous accounts made by Jim Rassmann in the Oregonian newspaper and a direct contradiction to the "No Man Left Behind" theme during the Democratic National Convention.
These ever changing accounts of the Bay Hap River incident by Kerry campaign officials leave me asking one question…if no one ever left the scene of the Bay Hap River incident, how could anyone be left behind?
Hugh Hewitt said it best earlier today. It's a good thing that Republicans don't have plaintiffs' lawyers because they could sue the media for malpractice in reporting the Kerry-Cambodia story.
Posted by steve @ 06:15 PM EST [Link]
~ I FEEL NO PITY FOR THEM: The same German union that denounced the United States as a bunch of "warmongers" is apparently upset because the U.S. is withdrawing its forces from Germany. Davids Medienkritik reports complete with links to German language news articles.
Ich fühle nicht für Sie traurig!
Posted by steve @ 06:04 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS THEY ARE INSANE: I missed this yesterday somehow but Iran announced that it would launch a preemptive strike against American forces in the Middle East if it felt its nuclear facilities were in danger. I guess someone hasn't been watching the news the last couple of years.
Posted by steve @ 05:57 PM EST [Link]
~ KERRY'S HOUSE OF KETCHUP RETURNS: It's been a few weeks but Sean Hackbarth's Kerry's House of Ketchup is back. You can find the latest issue here.
Posted by steve @ 05:50 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, August 18, 2004 WHEN TECHNOLOGY RUNS AMOK: I recently told you about a new Cingular service which calls your cell-phone with a scripted conversation that enables you to get out of dates. If that wasn't bad enough, there is another service which sends you a snarky email essentially calling you a loser.
If someone you recently tried to pick up at a bar told you to e-mail them at a papernapkin.net address, don't get too excited about your forthcoming romantic prospects.
That's because any e-mail sent to any papernapkin.net address returns the following bad news: "Nice to hear from you. Ha ha, just kidding. Actually, this is a rejection letter. The person who gave you this email address does not want to have anything to do with you."
Paper Napkin is the newest in a line of services designed to help people on the receiving end of unwanted advances get rid of their would-be suitors.
I've never received a bum phone number (or email for that matter) but I have been turned down occasionally when I asked. Although rejection sucks it's a damned sight better when delivered personally than through a cowardly way like email.
Besides, I've become friends with a few of the dames that turned me down. What do you say to someone that you've snarked with a bum email address the next time to meet them?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:41 PM EST [Link]
~ I, JOHN KERRY AND TOM HARKIN WERE RUNNING GUNS INTO CAMBODIA WITH THE HELP OF THE CIA: Hugh Hewitt has an article up at WND basically detailing where the Kerry-Cambodia story has travelled over the past few weeks. If we lived in a world where the media actually did their job, Kerry's stories would have been exposed on the 6 O'Clock news.
Over at his blog, Hewitt has an extensive round-up of links.
Posted by steve @ 04:28 PM EST [Link]
~ WAY TO HAVE THE COURAGE OF YOUR CONVICTIONS: A Republican congressman has come out against the Iraq war barely two weeks before he is set to retire.
"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," Rep. Doug Bereuter wrote in a letter to his constituents.
"Left unresolved for now is whether intelligence was intentionally misconstrued to justify military action," he said.
I have no problem with people opposed to the war -- heck we've run them in ESR repeatedly -- but I find it difficult to believe that Bereuter's change of heart occured recently. People elected him to do what he thought was right and if he supported the war just because he's a Republican, well he wasn't worth voting for to begin with.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:22 PM EST [Link]
~ THAT MEANS I'M A GULF WAR ERA SOLDIER: Glenn Reynolds has a bunch of posts regarding the odd selection of Sen. Tom Harkin to attack Dick Cheney's patriotism. Why? Because Harkin was previously unmasked as someone who lied about dogfighting MiGs over Vietnam. In fact he's spun almost as many stories about Vietnam as John Kerry. The reality? He was a ferry pilot stationed in Japan.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:17 PM EST [Link]
~ I GUESS A FEW PREVIOUS EXAMPLES HAVEN'T TAUGHT THEM ANYTHING: According to MEMRI report, it appears that Iran's government is planning attacks on American soil.
A report on May 28 in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that an Iranian intelligence unit has established a center called "The Brigades of the Shahids of the Global Islamic Awakening." The paper claimed that it had obtained a tape with a speech by Hassan Abbassi, a Revolutionary Guards intelligence theoretician who teaches at Al-Hussein University. In the tape, Mr. Abbassi spoke of Tehran’s secret plans, which include "a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." In order to accomplish this, he explained, "There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them."
Now I'm not one to offer advice to sovereign nations but perhaps the Iran government should look across the border into Iraq and over at Afghanistan to learn what happens when countries do irrational things and draw America's angry attention. The lifespan of their governments seems to shorten very quickly.
That said, it seems some people really want a war of civilizations. Unfortunately they don't realize they won't be on the winning side if they really want to push it.
Posted by steve @ 03:09 PM EST [Link]
~ I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO FIGHT UNTIL THE LAST DROP OF YOUR BLOOD?: Muqtada al-Sadr has once again promised to disband his "army" and enter the mainstream political process. His latest change of heart came after the Iraqi government announced it was going to "liberate" the Imam Ali Shrine. I guess al-Sadr's version of fighting to the death is different from everyone else's.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:03 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in today's National Post concerning the issue of urban sprawl. Last month the McGuinty government introduced a new plan that would essentially choke cities via a lack of infrastructure money if they grew outside of certain boundaries.
At any rate it's not available online (subscribers only) but go to page A13 and look for "Queen's Park shouldn't dictate where people live".
Posted by steve @ 02:46 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, August 17, 2004 FREE SPEECH FOR ME...: Hackers promise to try and take down GOP web sites during the Republican National Convention later this month proving that free speech for liberals means that only liberals can speak freely.
One day, just one day, I'd like to see someone call them on this kind of behavior.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:32 PM EST [Link]
~ COULD MCGREEVEY CAUSE CORZINE TO GO?: Liberals and Democrats are in a tizzy because they fear, not without some justification, that Jim McGreevey may cause Jon Corzine to leave the Senate. Why? If McGreevey leaves before September 3, New Jersey will have to hold a special election to replace him and the fear is that Corzine will leave the Senate to run for governor.
Interestingly, Corzine hasn't ruled out doing so if McGreevey bails out early.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:06 PM EST [Link]
~ WON'T HE EVER GO AWAY?: Walter Cronkite is retiring once again -- this time from the column writing business -- and he takes a few parting shots. Not at the establishment media, but rather his web-based competitors.
Colby Cosh takes a few shots back.
Posted by steve @ 04:29 PM EST [Link]
Monday, August 16, 2004 AND ABOVE ALL, MAKE SURE SHE'S REALLY RICH: Matt Drudge reports that John Kerry, not content with half-assed policy statements, is now offering half-assed advice to men in the latest GQ.
Posted by steve @ 11:28 PM EST [Link]
~ BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME: As widely reported yesterday, George W. Bush announced today that American soldiers based in Europe and Asia -- some 70 000 of them -- will be returned back home within the next decade.
Proving, however, that only Democrats are allowed to reduce troop levels overseas, Wesley Clark -- once fired as NATO Supreme Commander -- decried the move as irresponsible. Apparently it wasn't irresponsible for Bill Clinton to cut the army down to 10 combat divisions from 18, cut by 40 per cent the air force, get rid of hundreds of Navy warships and starve the military of needed money. All this while al-Qaida was building an operational capacity to strike inside the United States.
With all due respect to Clark, keeping soldiers in Europe is largely pointless, though a decent argument can be made that they can be deployed to troublespots more quickly. That said, as Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett argued in a book earlier this year (and in an interview here), the troublespots in the future aren't going to be in Europe, they'll be located in what he calls the Gap, nations that are economically and politically disconnected from the developed world. They are the homes of terrorism. Those nations are primarily in Africa and the Middle East. It wouldn't surprise me if we saw a larger American (and international) military presence in Africa in the coming years, where the U.S. is already operating some bases. Some of those soldiers coming back home will eventually find themselves back overseas, but where they will be needed.
Posted by steve @ 02:29 PM EST [Link]
~ HORSE RACE: A very interesting post over at PoliPundit (complete with spiffy graph!) about what the polling numbers in the U.S. presidential election mean. It's still anyone's game but D.J. Drummond argues that Bush's numbers are actually quite good compared to some historical examples...including another guy named Bush.
Posted by steve @ 02:12 PM EST [Link]
~ VENEZUELAN'S VOTE FOR AUTHORITARIAN RULE: Venezuelans gave a strong mandate for rule yesterday to Hugo Chavez, an authoritarian ruler that took his playbook from Mexico's PRI party.
Officials from the National Electoral Council said that, with 94% of ballots counted, Mr Chavez had 58% of the vote.
Opponents rejected the partial results as a fraud, insisting they had won.
But it now seems clear the opposition desire to force him from office failed as previous attempts did, the BBC's James Menendez in Caracas says.
There was a large turnout for the vote, in which Venezuelans were asked whether Mr Chavez should serve out the remaining two-and-a-half years of his term.
You have to give the people what they want and they'll get it in spades.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:48 PM EST [Link]
~
THEY WENT THROUGH 40 SCRIPTS FOR THAT?: So I decided to take a break yesterday and see a movie I've been waiting a decade for, Aliens vs. Predator. Sometimes anticipation isn't a good thing. There isn't much to recommend AvP outside of some great CGI work for the Aliens, a very realistic looking Alien Queen and some great Predator costumes. There was no story to speak of (and what story there was strained the limits of logic) and the editing was so jerky that it was hard to tell sometimes what exactly was going on during the battle scenes, ruining the entire point of matching up the two species.
At times it seemed like they had a to-do list and they tried to check off as many things as possible, leading to a movie that seemed very rushed in pacing. And as a reviewer said last week (I think it was Slate's David Edelstein, AvP managed to create no connection between the audience and the human characters. As each one meets their gruesome fate, you could hardly care less. As the first two (and half of the third and fourth) Alien movies proved, you have to make the audience invest in the characters or otherwise you get a movie where the humans merely serve as targets.
What really bothered fans like me, those who read the old Dark Horse Aliens vs. Predator series of the 1990s, was that they made changes to some of the parameters that always governed the encounters between the three species. I won't get into them because I'm not Comic Book Guy and you might want to see the movie yourself but if you're familiar with the comics and the video games, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Posted by steve @ 01:41 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, August 15, 2004 THIS SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED YEARS AGO: U.S. President George W. Bush will announce Monday that that he will bring tens of thousands of soldiers stationed in Europe and Asia back home.
As part of the largest troop realignment in years, Bush will shift about 70,000 uniformed military personnel, most of them currently in Europe, the senior officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A significant proportion will come home, though it was not clear when.
The decision is meant to "strengthen our ability to respond to threats overseas," one official said, declining to elaborate.
"It will improve our capability to protect America and our allies and ease some of the burden on our uniformed military members and their families," one official said.
The decision is sure to be a politically popular one at a time when Bush has refused to offer a timetable for bringing home the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq.
Whether it's to punish Europe for their Iraq stance or simply to recognize changes in the geopolitical world, it's a move that should have been made a long time ago. Kudos to Bush for pulling the trigger on the move. Although Europe is useful in the sense that it offers the ability to keep soldiers closer to potential trouble spots, it's also -- in my opinion, at any rate -- expensive and unneeded.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:28 AM EST [Link]
~ PITY SOME OF THEIR CORELIGIONISTS IN IRAQ DON'T THINK THE SAME WAY: The government of Iran tried to support people like Moqtada Sadr but apparently millions of Iranians didn't buy into the program by refusing to protest in support.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:27 AM EST [Link]
~ NOW THAT'S DEDICATION: Phish fans abandon their cars and walk dozens of miles in the mud to see their favorite band play for the last time. Imagine what the bootlegs will sell for.
Read on.
Posted by antle @ 01:30 AM EST [Link]
~ NEW JERSEYANS' TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: There is a lot still unfolding in the saga of New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, but it seems there is more at issue here than one man's personal struggles and peccadilloes.
Former New Jerseyan Lawrence Henry commented on the season's latest scandal in The American Spectator Online.
Posted by antle @ 12:19 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, August 14, 2004 OFF TO IRAQ: VDARE columnist Allan Wall, who has written eloquently about immigration issues from his perspective as an American living in Mexico, will be going to Iraq now that his unit has been called up. I urge ESR readers to include him and the family he leaves behind in their thoughts.
Godspeed, Allan.
Posted by antle @ 11:45 PM EST [Link]
Friday, August 13, 2004 I DID NOTHING WRONG WHEN I MADE THAT UP TO SUPPORT MY POSITION: A few weeks ago it was reported that an Illinois newspaper was steamed that Michael Moore used a headline out of context during his Fahrenheit 9/11 movie. Moore has responded.
Director Michael Moore is refusing to apologize to bosses at an Illinois newspaper, who have accused him of altering a headline in his controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11. Bosses at Bloomington publication The Pantagraph say the headline, flashed briefly in the film, came from a letter to the editor about the 2000 presidential election recount but was doctored to look like a news story. Even the date was changed. The newspaper sent a letter to Moore and his production company last month that it says was lighthearted but symbolic, demanding an apology and $1 in compensatory damages. But an attorney for Moore's Westside Productions replied this week, stating that Moore violated no copyright laws and did nothing misleading.
Pantagraph president and publisher Henry Bird, who directed his lawyers to send a follow-up letter asking Moore to explain why material from the paper was altered without permission, booms, "Baloney!" Westside Productions lawyer Devereux Chatillon acknowledges that Moore was two weeks off on the date of the headline, which read: "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election." But Chatillon wrote in a letter to the paper that the mistake "did not make a difference to the editorial point... and was in no way detrimental to (The Pantagraph)".
Posted by steve @ 06:27 PM EST [Link]
~ FUNNY: National Lampoon has created a web site to (what else?) lampoon MoveOn.org. It's called MoveOnPlease.org and it's pretty funny.
55% Of Iraqis Who Would Have been Murdered or Maimed if Saddam Stayed in Power Want U.S. Out
The sanctioned poll taken from the 75,000 names gathered from Odai and Qusai's "to do" list and other miscellaneous soon-to-be-missing persons offers irrefutable evidence that the Iraqi people, given a choice, want us out of their country.
While there were two or three thousand who were actually taken from the brothers' little black book of the Iraqi government's authorized rapes, most were those who Saddam Hussein and his Fadijin would have rested away from their families in the middle of the night and subjected them to brutal unjustified torture, mutilation and death if Saddam had not been driven from power.
Given the choice between continued dictatorial persecution and freedom, those polled overwhelmingly chose dictatorial persecution. When asked in their own language the results were a bit more muddy.
You can find it here. Warning, some quite naughty language.
Posted by steve @ 02:34 AM EST [Link]
~ EVEN LGB'S CAN'T STAND ROSIE: The New York Post reports that Rosie Donnell's gay themed cruises have gotten off to a less than fabulous start.
Posted by steve @ 02:28 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, August 12, 2004 GONE FISHIN': Sorry, no blogging out of me today. Many projects to take care of so my contributions to Musings will be negligable today and possibly tomorrow.
Posted by steve @ 06:34 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 ANTI-ENVIRONMENTALIST BUSH ADMINISTRATION FUNDS ENVIRONMENTALIST GROUPS TO BATTLE THEM ON ENVIRONMENTALISM: Sorry, that had to be so long to illustrate the stupidity of it all. CNS reported earlier today that, "Federal government grants to anti-Bush environmentalist organizations have been increasing dramatically during the Bush administration."
Robert Bidinotto, quoted in the story, has some thoughts here.
Posted by steve @ 08:06 PM EST [Link]
~ THE HORROR...THE HORROR: Well, turns out John Kerry is capable of flip-flopping on his own war record. After years of claiming he did some Apocalypse Now stuff in Cambodia in Christmas 1968, turns out the senator may have plumb made a mistake. A Kerry campaign advisor said on Fox News today that his candidate's "searing memory" wasn't so searingly correct.
But today, on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kerry Campaign Advisor Jeh Johnson had this to say to the show's co-host Brian Kilmeade:
JOHNSON: John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve 1968 which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the recorded to say it was some place on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in Cambodia. My understanding is that he is not certain about that date.
KILMEADE: I think the term was he had a searing memory of spending Christmas - back in 1986 in the senate floor -- in Cambodia.
JOHNSON: I believe he has corrected the record to say it was some place near Cambodia he is not certain whether it was in Cambodia but he is certain there was some point subsequent to that that he was in Cambodia.
To engage in a bit of sarcasm: I have no doubt.
Posted by steve @ 05:21 PM EST [Link]
~ NOT EXACTLY WHAT WE WOULD CALL A SURPRISE: A senior member of Iran's Iranian Revolutionary Guards admitted in a seminar that Iran has been aiding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist attacks in Iraq.
Zarqawi and as many as 20 members of his Ansar al-Islam group can enter Iran whenever they want through certain border points that stretch between Halabja in northern Iraq to Ilam in the south, Suleimani said, according to the paper. Zarqawi went to Iran a few months ago where he spent some time in an Iranian revolutionary guard training camp in the area of Mehran near the border with Iraq and later returned to Baqubah, north of Baghdad, the paper said.
Meanwhile, yesterday Iraq accused Iran of aiding Moqtada Sadr by supplying him and his "army" with weapons.
"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border," Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said. "From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one regarded as the chief enemy."
Shaalan's remarks, made during an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel, was the latest in a litany of accusations by Baghdad against Teheran. Iraqi officials said Teheran has also sent thousands of operatives to Iraq to foment unrest and support the Shi'ite and Sunni insurgency.
Sounds to me like someone is aiming to get themselves at the top of the Axis of Evil target list.
Posted by steve @ 04:31 PM EST [Link]
~ MORE ON THE MISSION TO FIND COL. KURTZ: James Lileks has a few thoughts on the Kerry in Cambodia mission here (scross about a 1/4 way down) while Hugh Hewitt interviews one of the cats who served with Kerry during that period. Meanwhile Atrios has finally responded to Hugh's challenge to the liberal blogosphere to explain away this story and Hewitt isn't impressed.
Posted by steve @ 01:14 AM EST [Link]
~ THE RIGHT BEER NOW?: Republicans have a real race on their hands holding onto Ben Nighthorse Campbell's seat in Colorado. But at least they'll have money - Pete Coors of the Coors brewing fortune won the GOP primary.
Bring on the Coors Twins!
Posted by antle @ 01:12 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece on the Foundation of Economic Education website bemoaning the decline of fiscal conservatism. Look for FEE to augment The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty with more web-exclusive commentaries in the future.
Posted by antle @ 12:54 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 THOSE PURPLE HEARTS: In case you're interested, Human Events Online has placed a full chapter from Unfit for Command dealing with John Kerry's campaign for purple hearts. You'll need Adobe Acrobat and you can find it here.
Posted by steve @ 09:27 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU HAVE TO BUY ONE OF THESE: I don't shill very often but since I'm not receiving any benefit from this I feel comfortable in declaring that you absolutely need a pair of John Kerry Flip Flops. American made and they feature maximum flip-flop action!
Buy them here!
Posted by steve @ 09:20 PM EST [Link]
~ HUNTING AFTER KURTZ: Man, I love those liberal bloggers. Matthew Yglesias answers Hugh Hewitt's call for a prominent liberal blogger to speak about the Kerry-Cambodia story and promptly looks silly.
Seriously, in my experience these damaging-looking allegations have a way of turning out not to be true, a fact that never seems to get as much coverage as the initial allegation. But it certainly looks bad from here, and I haven't seen a good explanation yet, perhaps because there isn't one. It's a little hard to see what could possibly be the motive for a Kerry lie on this front, which makes it plausible that there's a reasonable explanation, but also a little freaky if there does turn out to be one. Personally, I've never maintained that John Kerry had a George Washington-esque level of honesty (see, e.g., my article about how Kerry is basically lying about his trade policy) so my world won't be shaken to the core if this turns out to be a fib.
Dude, so if your candidate turns out to be lying about a significant event in his war experience it wouldn't bother you that much?
What level of lying would you find acceptable? I realize most politicians stretch the truth in a bid to get elected. They make promises they know will be difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill. The problem with Kerry's lie (or is it lies?) is that it is one that did not directly advance his political agenda, it aggrandized him. It also disrespects his actual Vietnam service.
I suppose Mr. Yglesias has a lower standard of conduct for his politicians. I do not. This isn't some drunk driving charge in the 1970s or a tryst on a boat with a bimbo, Kerry openly announced that he broke the law and entered Cambodia under the orders of Richard Nixon (who wasn't even president at the time, by the way). If it's the truth, so be it. If it's a lie, then it's a damnable lie. If that doesn't shake Mr. Yglesias' world at least a little, I wonder what it would take.
Posted by steve @ 09:06 PM EST [Link]
~ WAS HE EVEN IN VIETNAM?: (Via Hugh Hewitt) Three of John Kerry's Swift Boat mates say that John Kerry's claims of being on a secret mission in Cambodia are not true.
The issue of Cambodia was first highlighted by Kerry, who made a dramatic speech in the Senate in 1986 recounting his experience aboard a gunboat on a combat mission five miles into Cambodia in 1968.
Among other things, Kerry recalled that during the mission he was shot at by drunken South Vietnamese allies.
Kerry said in the Senate speech that the memory "is seared — seared — in me."
Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt wonders why prominent bloggers on the left haven't even mentioned the story.
As I've said before, I'm not going to cut down Kerry's four months in Vietnam because I've never seen combat myself but I know men who've fought -- one at Juno Beach on D-Day and another who served on the Murmansk Run -- and they never had to embellish their stories.
Posted by steve @ 12:54 PM EST [Link]
~ I LOVE ZOMBIE MOVIES AND ALL: But this might be a bit much. The Hollywood Reporter reports that a zombie movie is being filmed at Chernobyl.
Ukrainian-born producer Anatoly Fradis is proud -- despite the obstacles and the cost. "Up to a couple of days before we began shooting, it was touch-and-go whether they would let us in, and I had to pay more than I had budgeted to secure the permission," Fradis says, standing inside Chernobyl's first checkpoint inside the zone.
He's anxious to get started on two days of shooting on-location with director Ellory Elkayem and special effects zombie expert John Vulich of Optic Nerve Studios.
Oddly, none of the zombie scenes take place at Chernobyl. I mean, if the undead are going rise anywhere and wreak havoc, it's at the site of a nuclear accident. Interesting fact: Six thousand people still work there.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:44 PM EST [Link]
~ HAVING FUN IN NYC: Michelle Malkin has a roundup of news articles detailing the ultra left's plans to try and disrupt the Republican National Convention in New York later this month. Some of the tactics: Dress like Republicans to get as close as possible and saturate your clothes with the smell of gun powder and try and get near police dogs. Classy. If the dog attacked I wouldn't try and stop it.