Musings Archive December 2003
Wednesday, December 31, 2003 WHY DO I THINK WE'LL BE HEARING MORE ABOUT JEWS CONTROLLING AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY?: Richard Perle and David Frum have a new book out entitled An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, urging the Bush administration to continue actively fighting the war on terror.
President George W Bush was sent a public manifesto yesterday by Washington's hawks, demanding regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites.
The manifesto, presented as a "manual for victory" in the war on terror, also calls for Saudi Arabia and France to be treated not as allies but as rivals and possibly enemies.
I find it humorous that the book was released yesterday and it has already garnered a number of negative reviews by Amazon.com's readers. Hey, I read fast but I doubt I could do 304 pages in less than 24 hours. Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 06:13 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY WE KEEP WINNING: The biggest boon to the conservative movement in the last 20 years -- outside of Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh -- has been the tinfoil hat crowd on the far left. In that spirit, John Hawkins presents his list of the 10 worst quotes of 2003 from The Democratic Underground.
By far the worst, for me at least, is the attack by one jerk on the late Michael Kelly. Mr. jackswift, I wish death to my enemies as well...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:43 AM EST [Link]
~ HARD TO IGNORE A STRENGTHENING ECONOMY: Larry Kudlow argues that America's investor class, buoyed by a strengthening economy, will begin to strongly support George W. Bush's reelection bid.
If there is any reason why I hope Bush gets elected -- outside his performance on the war against terrorist activity and groups -- is Kudlow's belief that Dubya is going to push Americans to save more money and use tax incentives to do it. Guiding Americans to save more carries with it huge potential benefits for the future.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:31 AM EST [Link]
~ THE HEROES OF 2003: Radley Balko lists who he believes are the libertarian heroes of 2003. Some are well-known names, others less so. All good people though.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:48 AM EST [Link]
~ LAST CALL!: Today is the last day you can vote for ESR's Eighth Annual Person of the Year. We've had a ton of entries but that doesn't mean your vote won't matter!
Posted by steve @ 01:59 AM EST [Link]
~ LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON - IS BUSH ALIENATING CONSERVATIVES LIKE HIS DAD? This article in the Washington Times quotes many people who would make that case.
Now, I've often been critical of Bush from the right, as any regular reader is likely to have noticed by now. I've written a great deal about conservative irritation with Bush. But I just don't buy this.
Certainly, a lot of conservatives don't like what Bush is doing on government spending, wish he would do more on social issues like marriage and otherwise have been finding reasons to grumble about various administration policies. But his situation is in no way comparable to his father's in 1992. First of all, criticism of Bush is most intense among Beltway think-tankers, activists and pundits, not actual conservative voters. He still polls through the stratosphhere among registered Republicans. Second of all, I don't think any of Bush's departures from conservative orthodoxy - with the single possible exception of amnesty for illegal immigrants - rises to the level of something that will produce an open revolt among the right's rank and file, like his father's 1990 tax increase.
Combine these two factors with the war (both in Iraq and the broader war on terror) and the general repulsiveness of Howard Dean (who at this point is the likely Democratic nominee) and I think conservative support for Bush is likely to gain in strength. Conservatives have a stake in the Bush administration. They also have exhibited two strong political tendencies in recent years: Strong partisan loyalty to the Republicans and an even greater dislike and disgust for the liberals in the Democratic Party. I wish conservatives did more to shift the Bush administration to the right. But to say that there is any real risk of electoral abandonment is just wishful thinking on the part of a few activists. And conservatives wouldn't really benefit if it was more than wishful thinking.
Posted by antle @ 12:27 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 CARUBA INVADES CANADIAN AIRWAVES: Alan Caruba -- regular ESR contributor and head honcho of The National Anxiety Center -- will appear on Toronto's CFRB tonight at about 11:00pm with host Mark Elliot. Be sure to listen in!
Posted by steve @ 06:32 PM EST [Link]
~ THE ONLY VIEWPOINTS THAT WILL BE PROTECTED WILL BE THE POPULAR ONES: (Via Instapundit) If you live in California, make sure not to say anything bad about illegal immigration. If you do, you might end up like 17-year old Tim Bueler who has been targeted by both his fellow students and by his high school's faculty.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:32 PM EST [Link]
~ TMQ: Gregg Easterbrook's final regular season Tuesday Morning Quarterback is up and I have to say I like his cheerbabe of the week. Other weighty issues he considers include a seeded playoffs, something I have to confess I don't like.
"Why should a team that wins a weak division get privileges in the playoffs over a team that finishes second in a strong division?"
I can understand that line of thinking -- I've had the same thoughts about the NHL playoffs (currently the number four and five times in the NHL's western conference have better records than the number three team) -- but in my mind you may as well wipe out the divisions and simply have two divisions in each league with a one-two finisher and one wildcard if you go the seeded route (actually, I'd drop the wildcard myself in that situation). If a division is persistently weak, then change the division. After all, the NFL is all about parity, right?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:07 PM EST [Link]
~ ONE NATION UNDER ALLAH: Alyssa A. Lappen over at FrontPage Magazine as an interesting investigative report on the Ford Foundation which seems to be doing its best to infringe on the right of free speech in the United States when it comes to Islam.
To most Americans, it may seem unlikely that the U.S. Constitution could -- or should -- ever be revised to conform to strict Islamic law. But an educational program funded by the Ford Foundation has explored that very possibility, challenging our right to unfettered freedom of speech. The program, administered by the woefully misnamed Constitutional Rights Foundation, asks students to ponder how the Constitution could be amended or otherwise interpreted to prohibit blasphemy against Allah.
The most dangerous enemies are always the ones in your midst and I think the Ford Foundation certainly qualifies. I have a message for anyone immigrating to the West who is uncertain about some things: We have the right to criticize whatever we want here and that includes your religion. If you don't like that, stay the hell where you are. Seriously.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:44 PM EST [Link]
~ SOUNDS LIKE A PUNDIT TO ME: Mark Styen has a nice piece in the Telegraph detailing the insatiable desire for doom and gloom among the punditry. You know, the class of intellectual that swore Baghdad wouldn't fall even as it was falling.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 12:36 PM EST [Link]
~ IS THERE A CURE THOUGH?: Victor Davis Hanson has a marvelous piece on what he calls "the western disease" on NRO today that is well worth reading.
There is something terribly wrong, something terribly amoral with the Western intelligentsia, most prominently in academia, the media, and politics. We don’t need Osama bin Laden’s preschool jabbering about “the weak horse” to be worried about the causes of this Western disease: thousands of the richest, most leisured people in the history of civilization have become self-absorbed, ungracious, and completely divorced from the natural world — the age-old horrific realities of dearth, plague, hunger, rapine, or conquest.
Indeed, it is even worse than that: a Paul Krugman or French barrister neither knows anything of how life is lived beyond his artificial cocoon nor of the rather different men and women whose unacknowledged work in the shadows ensures his own bounty in such a pampered landscape — toil that allows our anointed to rage at those purportedly culpable for allowing the world to function differently from an Ivy League lounge or the newsroom of the New York Times. Neither knows what it is like to be in a village gassed by Saddam Hussein or how hard it is to go across the world to Tikrit and chain such a monster.
Our Western intellectuals are sheltered orchids who are naïve about the world beyond their upscale hothouses. The Western disease of deductive fury at everything the West does provides a sort of psychological relief (without costs) for apparent guilt over privileged circumstances. It is such a strange mixture of faux-populism and aristocratic snobbery. They believe only a blessed few such as themselves have the requisite education or breeding to understand the “real” world of Western pathologies and its victims.
You really must read this.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:23 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIANS FOR AMERICA: Kathy Shaidle over at Relapsed Catholic has a great essay in the Dallas Morning News about being a recovering anti-American.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:23 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 29, 2003 SPILLING THE BEANS: Saddam Hussein has reportedly given his interrogators a wealth of information concerning hidden weapons and as much as $40 billion he stole from his people.
"Saddam has confessed the names of people he told to keep the money and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily.
Dean was right, the capture of Hussein really wasn't anything...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:15 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a column in Toogood Reports on the tendency of Republicans to pander to the opposition and consequently surrender on issues where the conservative position is in the majority.
Posted by antle @ 10:34 AM EST [Link]
~ NOT A BAD TRACK RECORD: It's fun to make predictions but so few people actually bother to check how right they got it. Mark Steyn looks back at 2003 and some of his more famous guesses.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:45 AM EST [Link]
~ AGING: Personally I believe that a woman who ages gracefully is one of God's gifts to the planet. Unfortunately, the lady known as Playboy is beginning to look a trifle worn. So says Andrew Stuttaford who reviews the shambles that is the 50th anniversary issue.
However good the party, the morning after is always depressing. There will be cigarette ash on the carpet, half-empty glasses in the sink, and, usually, a baleful selection of uneaten snacks on the kitchen table, curling and discoloring as they begin to decay. Seen in the unforgiving light of the hangover dawn, even the memories soon start to spoil. Was that conversation truly so witty, that woman really so attractive? And so it is that studying Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Issue (yup, yet another tough assignment for NRO) left me, well, a little bit sad. Oh, Melba Ogle (July 1964, and was that really her name?), where are you now?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:26 AM EST [Link]
~ SO SAURON IS ALLAH?: The latest edition of Tongue Tied is out and among the stories are an idiotic attempt to declare the Lord of the Rings trilogy racist (the good guys are from the West, the bad guys ride elephants!) and the BBC's determination to call Saddam Hussein an ex-president, among other stories.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:54 AM EST [Link]
~ ENJOY THE GOLDEN CLOAK: In Dante's version of hell hypocrites were amongst the worst treated sinners. They were forced to parade around in beautiful cloaks made of golden thread which appeared to be as light as silk. This being hell, of course, the exact opposite was true. The cloaks were as heavy as something made of solid lead and the sufferers, who appeared to be wearing fine light garments, would receive no consoling words from onlookers.
I tell you this because Howard Dean will be wearing one of those cloaks one day. It has now been learned that Dean, who has been blasting away at Dick Cheney for months about secret meetings of his energy task force, himself had a secret energy task force when he was governor of Vermont. In fact, he used the exact same arguments in defending why his energy task force needed to be secret.
"The governor needs to receive advice from time to time in closed session. As every person in government knows, sometimes you get more open discussion when it's not public," Dean was quoted as saying.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:50 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY NOT CALL YOURSELVES THE 9/11 BOYS?: A firestorm recently erupted in California after it was learned that a Muslim football tournament included some teams with names like Intifada, Soldiers of Allah and Mujahideen. The organizers are shocked -- shocked! -- that some people would take offense to something as wholesome as those names!
Muslim leaders have asked the teams to reconsider the names.
"Sensitizing our youths is our role as adults," said Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.
But he also said he believed the players were not being malicious when they decided the names.
"In this case, the choices were totally innocent and meant for a small intra-Muslim tournament whose members all knew what the terms stand for," Ayloush said. "Unfortunately, we are aware that a few of those terms are being tainted by the abominable actions of a few Muslims."
Yes Mr. Ayloush, and "gay" means happy but I don't know many people who use the word in its proper context. "Intifada" and "Mujahideen" have very different meanings for everyone these days.
That said, this reminds me of back in high school when we were organizing a floor hockey team for an intramural competition. The faculty was shocked -- shocked! -- when we decided our team name would be "The Canis Lupus Majors". Now the learned in the audience will immediately recognize that canis lupus refers to wolves but apparently the faculty, including one particularly moronic vice principle who bore a small resemblance to Pat Sajak, thought it referred to the Evil Weed, marijuana. Needless to say the brain trust blocked our team name though that didn't stop us from handily winning the tournament.
Now we shouldn't go on a, ahem, crusade against these youths for making some unfortunate choices in team names but nor should we make claims that they weren't being provactive with those names.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:44 AM EST [Link]
~ THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) Good story in today's Christian Science Monitor about the progress being made by coalition forces in stopping insurgents in Iraq. As Dan Murphy points out, this aspect of the war is far more difficult than the first part.
Attacks on soldiers have dropped steeply in the Tikrit area over the past month. After more than six months of intensive raids, foot patrols, and intelligence gathering, commanders believe they have tapped into the rhythm of the insurgency. "We're making steady, [unstoppable] progress,'' says Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who commands the 1st Battalion of the 22nd Infantry.
Yet despite recent successes in Tikrit, the war being fought is not the kind to be won with a single, crushing blow. The picture pieced together by troops and intelligence officers across Iraq is one of a fractured, decentralized insurgency. There is no single Professor Moriarty masterminding the violence against coalition troops - and so no silver bullet.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:25 AM EST [Link]
~ SEARCH PHRASE FUN: Just looking over the logs for the last week and as always a couple of interesting search terms that led people to ESR:
"different cultures belching" - Not one but two people found us this way. In some cultures belching apparently is a compliment to the chef.
"do women date bald men" - No, unless you are rich.
"michelle malkin pretty" - Very much so.
"the times credo by jonathan sacks the egg perfect food" - The perfect food is bacon.
"preteen nude" - 14 people used the Microsoft Network to search for this term and find us. How very disconcerting. Nearly two dozen people also used terms that included "nude children", "nude teenage girls", "nude teen boys" and "nude preteen girls", among others. Wrong place people!
Posted by steve @ 01:18 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK - EARLY EDITION: I tell you, the Arizona-Minnesota game is the perfect argument for buying a satelite dish and subscribing to an NFL package. Of course I can't afford to do so so I had to make due with Fox and CBS games. Minnesota needs to get into the playoffs and can only do so if they beat the Cardinals. Easy win? Guess again. The Cardinals, clearly trying to make a point, gave the Vikings everything they could handle and a marvelous final play which saw Josh McCown throw a touchdown pass to Nathan Poole capped off a 12 point comeback and the win. Not only that, but the Vikings loss propelled Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers to the playoffs.
Favre, who has had what anyone would call a difficult week, credited the Packers win and the Vikings loss to his father.
"I felt like he was watching. Something's going on here," said Favre.
"I've been around people who have lost a family member or lost someone close to them and they say that that person is there watching, or the angels, whatever. I'd say two weeks ago I didn't really believe in that. But I think we better start believing in something, because the odds were against us and they were really [against us] at the end of the Arizona game."
Orrin Judd believes that football is "anti-American/anti-human" but could it actually be the sport of God? Of course not, everyone knows hockey is His favourite sport.
Of course, the victory didn't come without a price for the Cardinals. By winning the game they lose the first pick in the NFL draft and fall to third. Hey, as Gregg Easterbrook would likely say, the Football Gods shall reward the Cardinals for playing the game to win. The Cards will also lose coach Dave McGinnis, who went 17-40 during his tenure in Arizona. The only person who should be fired is team owner Bill Bidwill, a man who personifies incompetence.
Odd weekend for me: Seattle decides they can actually play on the road at beat San Francisco, Atlanta beats Jacksonville, Cincinnati is downed by Cleveland, Dallas decided it was a bye week and let the Saints win (allowing Seattle entry in the post season), and St. Louis -- even after throwing in Kurt Warner -- lost to the Lions and thereby threw away home-field advantage in the playoffs. This after leading 20-10 at the half. Turnovers are always a key stat when it comes to wins and Marc Bulger's hamhandedness gave the gift of 10 points to the Lions.
ESR game balls go to Jamal Lewis for becoming the fifth man to rush for 2 000 yards in a single season, going for 2,066, second best in NFL history. The other ball goes to the Cardinals for actually winning.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14
Week 9: 7 of 14
Week 10: 9 of 14
Week 11: 12 of 16
Week 12: 12 of 16
Week 13: 8 of 16
Week 14: 8 of 16
Week 15: 12 of 16
Week 16: 11 of 16
Week 17: 10 of 16Season %: 67 (171 of 256)
So about the playoffs? Glad you asked. For Wildcard Weekend I predict that Tennessee will win on the road against Baltimore and Dallas, also on the road, will beat Carolina. On Sunday, Green Bay will beat up on Seattle while Indianapolis will knock Denver out of further contention.
The cheerleader of the week can only go to an Arizona Cardinal and my selection is rookie pom pom waver Bridgot. Though she breaks my heart being married, Bridgot impresses me by graduating Summa Cum Laude from ASU and teaching. As a special bonus, here's Brooke, the Cardinals' Pro Bowl bound cheerleader.
Now off to watch the Dallas/New Orleans game which is being re-aired on Canada's Global Television! It's never too late to watch football...
Posted by steve @ 12:23 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 28, 2003 YES, BUT I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT F------- LANGUAGE: John T. McWhorter writes in the Washington Post that we better get used to foul language because we're only going to hear more of it on television.
This has never been more clear than it became a couple of weeks ago, when flavor-of-the-month Nicole Richie, appearing on Fox TV's "Billboard Music Awards" broadcast, casually dropped some classic four- (and more) letter words into her reminiscences of her stint on the reality show "The Simple Life." Fox's switchboard lit up with indignant callers, but the network received not even a slap on the wrist from the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that watchdogs on-air language. That's because two months before, unbeknown to many of us, the FCC had decreed a new era in American public language usage.
After receiving complaints that Irish rocker Bono had crowed, "This is really, really f -- -- ing brilliant!"on the "Golden Globe Awards" broadcast last January, also on Fox , the FCC's enforcement bureau ruled Oct. 3 that this adjectival usage of the F-word does not qualify as "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium." Predictably, this has not gone down well with some, from the Parents Television Council (which organized most of the Bono complaints) to congressmen to FCC Chairman Michael Powell himself, who played no part in the ruling and deemed it "reprehensible" that children might hear the F-word in any form on the air. But like it or not, we'd better get used to it. We are today a society that elevates giving the finger to "the man" to a sign of enlightenment. So there are bound to be more such rulings, and at the end of the day, we are best advised to fasten our seat belts and accept them.
Another gift from the 1960s. Thanks.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:03 PM EST [Link]
~ YES, BUT WHAT WILL YOU SAY NEXT?: John Kerry, who can't seem to make up his mind about what he believes (or has believed as the case may be) today tore into Howard Dean for a series of muddleheaded statements.
"People are left wondering: What will he say next?" said Kerry, addressing about 180 supporters in a city library auditorium.
"We need more than simple answers and the latest slip of the tongue," he said. "This election is too vital for us to lose it if voters refuse to take a gamble on national security and the steadiness of our leadership."
I get the impression, Mr. Kerry, that the American people are increasingly refusing to take a gamble on national security and leadership. They already have someone at 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenue who's doing the job. And as for Kerry, I still can't figure out if he was in favor of the invasion of Iraq or not...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:49 PM EST [Link]
~ THEY COULD HAVE HAD IT AT MY HOUSE FOR CHEAPER: Canada's federal government spent $323 000 in May to announce plans for the Canadian History Centre, one that may not get off the ground now.
The May 26 announcement included 350 guests and featured speeches by Jean Chretien and Sheila Copps, the former Canadian Heritage minister. Costs included $10,350 for wall banners and a $6,000 catering bill.
Hosted by Senator Laurier LaPierre, it included two performance pieces by the National Theatre School, a slide and video presentation and singing of the national anthem by the Christ Church Cathedral Girls Choir.
Documents obtained by CanWest News reveal that Heritage's communications firm, Scott Thornley + Company, billed the government $67,000 to develop proposals for the announcement and another $196,000 to stage the event.
The documents also show that on top of this, about $60,000 worth of work for the announcement was subcontracted by the Government Conference Centre, where the announcement was made, including costs of $25,000 for rigging and lighting.
But the $323,000 total bill could have been higher, according to one draft prepared by the firm, which proposed a presentation alone that would have cost $417,000.
If they had done it at my house, I would have laid out a nice spread -- garlic bread, pizza, nachos and some sub sandwiches (I would have raided my Sunday football stores) -- and it would have been a lot cheaper. Oh well.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:38 PM EST [Link]
~ COOL: Andrew Sullivan writes today that PBS' Bill Moyers has written him to refuse the prestigious Begala Award he received a couple of days ago.
In a dramatic gesture, Bill Moyers has refused the prestigious Begala Award prize. Despite the fact that the Nation reported Moyers making the statement attributed to him, Moyers writes to say he didn't say exactly that. It's a mystery how the Nation reporter misheard it.
Read on.
Also make sure to check out his Derbyshire and Poseur Awards here and his Sontag Award winner here.
Posted by steve @ 05:48 PM EST [Link]
~ NO GOOD GOODRIDGE: In a valuable and characteristically thoughtful contribution to the marriage debate, Eve Tushnet critiques the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge decision for the National Catholic Register. Whatever your position on same-sex marriage, this piece goes to the heart of the problem of judicial activism, which we discuss so much here at ESR.
Too bad they didn't go with Eve's original draft title, which she said on her blog was, "From the state that brought you Harvard."
Posted by antle @ 04:07 PM EST [Link]
~ WHO'S AFRAID OF ANN COULTER?: It's tough to find a liberal who will go toe to toe with conservative uber-pundit Ann Coulter. At least that's what
humor columnist Gene Weingarten found. In his latest column, he offered to moderate a discussion between Coulter and Al Franken. Franken begged off, and both Michael Kinsley and Molly Ivins did the same. Tim Graham over at The Corner found this pretty funny, since Franken has been crowing about what a tough-guy he is since challenging National Review editor Rich Lowry to a fistfight; Lowry of course demurred. But I'm not entirely sure what in Weingarten's column really happend and what was just a joke.
Posted by antle @ 03:55 PM EST [Link]
~ LIBERAL HATE SPEECH: Want to see examples of liberals wishing death and disease on conservatives and other ideological opponents? Hear outrageous rhetoric comparing support for limited government, low taxes and the war against terrorism with Nazism, fascism and apartheid? Learn about how your Republican neighbors are all closet racists, sexists and homophobes?
Read Jeff Jacoby's annual liberal hate speech column.
Posted by antle @ 03:26 PM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 27, 2003 IF ONLY HE WOULD DO THIS WITH JUDGES: The Washington Post has reported that President Bush has bypassed the Senate by making a number of recess appointments.
This is the approach he should take to breaking the stalemate over his judicial nominees: If the Democrats won't allow a floor vote on his nominees, he should make recess appointments temporarily filling these slots with even more controversial conservatives. I wonder if Robert Bork is busy...
Posted by antle @ 04:35 PM EST [Link]
~ WALTER WILLIAMS ENDORSES THE FREE STATE PROJECT: In a sign that libertarians are starting to get more creative about their pursuit of liberty, syndicated columnist Walter Williams has issued his strongest endorsement to date of the Free State Project. Some of his points about secession and the Constitution are certainly debatable, but the project remains an interesting gambit that might at least be worth a try.
Posted by antle @ 03:18 PM EST [Link]
~ THANK GOD FOR THE JUSTICE SYSTEM: "Prosecutors said Friday they have offered Lionel Tate a plea bargain that could mean almost immediate freedom for the boy whose murder conviction and life sentence in the slaying of a 6-year-old playmate were thrown out earlier this month.
"The deal is identical to one Tate and his mother rejected in 2001, before he went to trial."
Read the news story here.
Read ESR's 2001 take on it here.
Posted by steve @ 03:52 AM EST [Link]
~ LIEBERMAN RUNS AFOUL OF THE ABORTION PARTY: The columnist Don Feder on occasion refers to the Democrats as "the Abortion Party," and the tempest that Sen. Joe Lieberman now finds himself in supports his contention. Lieberman has consistently voted pro-choice in the Senate and, despite his alleged social conservatism, has never taken a public position on abortion that could be construed as anything other than supportive of its legality. He reportedly made some innocuous comments to a newspaper about the implications of medical science's progress in lengthening the window of fetal viability. He now must scurry to defend his commitment to the Democrats' Holy Grail, Roe v. Wade.
Now, if fetal viability is the Supreme Court's standard for abortion rights, wouldn't changes in viability need to be taken into consideration? I don't think you need to be a stealth pro-lifer to make that point, but the Lieberman campaign isn't leaving anything up to chance, swearing up and down the senator is still pro-choice. Read the full story here.
Posted by antle @ 02:02 AM EST [Link]
Friday, December 26, 2003 THE SPECTER OF CHAIRMAN ARLEN THE BEST REASON TO VOTE TOOMEY: I can understand why Republicans feel conflicted about the GOP primary race in Pennsylvannia between incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter and his conservative challenger Rep. Pat Toomey. Specter is pretty liberal for a Republican and often a pain in the butt to conservatives, but he has managed to hold onto that seat in a competitive state and is more conservative than anyone the Democrats are likely to nominate for it. Pat Toomey is a solid conservative with a more Republican voting record than Specter, but he would shift the seat from being a reasonably safe bet for the GOP to a toss-up.
Yet with Orrin Hatch term-limited out of the position, Specter is line to become the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A staunch liberal on many of the issues that provoke the most controversy in judicial confirmation hearings, he could become an obstacle to President Bush's nominees and therefore be as destructive as any Democrat in that seat. Unless the GOP comes up with a plan to deny Specter the chairmanship, that by itself may be a decisive reason for conservative to vote Toomey.
Read the full story about the specter of Chairman Arlen here.
Posted by antle @ 11:27 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S AN HONOUR JUST TO BE NOMINATED: Andrew Sullivan presents his famed Begala and Von Hoffman Awards today. Find them here. The others shall be presented in a second stage.
Posted by steve @ 07:27 PM EST [Link]
~ DEAN SLOWLY LOSING GRASP ON REALITY: (via Brothers Judd Blog) In interview that ran today in The Concord Monitor, Howard Dean stated that we shouldn't prejudge Osama bin Laden before we actually determine whether he was behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Asked whether bin Laden should be tried in the United States and put to death, Dean told The Concord Monitor, "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."
In an interview with the New Hampshire newspaper for Friday editions, Dean added: "I'm sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you're running for president, or if you are president, it's best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it's not so great to prejudge the judicial system."
I pray to God and all that is holy that Dean becomes the Democratic nominee for president because George W. Bush couldn't lose against this boob.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:17 PM EST [Link]
~ IT WAS FUNNY THOUGH: If you watched the Houston-Tennessee game this past Sunday you saw a truly funny stunt. After Houston QB David Carr threw a touchdown to Corey Bradford, Carr and teammate Steve McKinney ran to the goal post and McKinney bent over as if to retrieve something hidden under the padding. As it turned out there was nothing there and Carr motioned to the fans to that effect.
It was, of course, a spoof of New Orleans receiver Joe Horn's cell phone call a week earlier and it was far funnier than Horn's celebration.
Well today the No Fun League...errr sorry, the NFL, fined both Carr and McKinney for the stunt. Guys, lighten up already.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:05 PM EST [Link]
~ QUAKE PROMPTS ANGER AT IRANIAN REGIME: According to the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, the earthquake that struck Iran and pratically destroyed the ancient city of Bam has prompted anger targeted at the regime.
Anger is rising against the Islamic republic regime following the deadly quake which jolt the historic southeastern City of Bam. Many Iranians are already blaming the regime for the lack of appropriate help and as the cold wave is expected to take more lives in the region with the start of night fall.
The few choppers, planes and tractors sent to the area, cut from neighboring cities, are judged to be unsufficient for the heavy task of rescuing thousands of wounded and many missing residents which have been trapped under the ruins or to transfer those laying in the streets to medical facilities.
This reminds me of when that big earthquake hit Turkey a few years ago and the government was so ill-prepared that Turks relied on their 'enemies' the Greeks for relief. It opened up closer relations between the two nations and forced the Turkish government to be more liberal. Hey, America, are you listening?
Read on.
Here's the latest on the quake itself.
Posted by steve @ 06:12 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 25, 2003 MUSHARRAF, U.S. DODGE BULLET: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf survived yet another assasination attempt today. Musharraf isn't perfect, but he's been an important ally in the region and has taken some constructive steps against terrorism since 9/11. His removal from power would be a serious setback in the war on terror. Everytime he dodges a bullet, so does the U.S.
Posted by antle @ 11:09 PM EST [Link]
~ VERY DUBIOUS INDEED: Alan Caruba of the National Anxiety Center has a round up of the most dubious news stories of 2003 here.
A ban on Oreo cookies indeed...
Posted by steve @ 05:31 PM EST [Link]
~ MERRY CHRISTMAS!: I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you on behalf of the entire ESR family a peaceful and joyous Christmas. May you spend it with those you treasure the most!
And here's an appropriate cartoon -- at least for Americans -- courtesy of Linda Eddy. View it here.
Posted by steve @ 01:03 AM EST [Link]
~ MOVIE NIGHT AT FORT SINATRA: There is a short little scene in Richard Linklater's 2001 movie Waking Life (which if you remember I wrote about last month) which sees characters named Jesse and Celine in bed talking about love and life. After I listened to the director's commentary I learned that they were picking up on conversations from an earlier movie they appeared in called Before Sunrise (1995), Linklater's third movie (after Slacker and Dazed & Confused). Based on that I decided to buy Before Sunrise unseen. Yeah, I liked Waking Life that much.
I wasn't disappointed. The movie takes place over only a few hours after Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meets Celine (Julie Delpy) on a train in Europe. Jesse is getting off in Vienna to catch a flight home to America while Celine is traveling on home to Paris. After a short conversation in the train's buffet car -- one that shows there is a clear attraction between the two -- he convinces her to get off with him and catch a later train. He has about 18 hours to kill before his plane leaves and he wants to spend it with her.
Linklater is known for movies filled with dialogue and Before Sunrise is no different. As the two walk the streets of Vienna they talk about everything from their childhoods, the nature of love, sex, fate and everything else that a pair of 20 year olds would discuss. Hanging over all their conversations is the stark fact that the next morning will see them split, probably never to see each other again.
I have to admit it was one of the more tender films I've seen. There is no pretence or artifice, Linklater just wants to tell the story of two people who've fallen in love. Whether it's the shy looks they give each other in the record listening booth or the "phone" conversations they share in a restaurant, the movie rings true. These are two real people and Linklater lets them stay that way. When their story ends it's impossible to know that they will met again even after making the promise.
Celine: I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away.
Before Sunrise is a bit of a cult film so it's surprising to learn that Linklater is making a sequel, reportedly set nine years after they first meet and entitled If Not Now. I can only hope that it captures the magic of the original.
Oh yes, and my love for Julie Delpy continues unabated. I'll even watch the dreadful An American Werewolf in Paris for her.
Posted by steve @ 12:58 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 24, 2003 I RATHER LIKED KEITH RICHARDS' LINE: Tim Blair has a roundup of the best quotes of 2003. Quite an intertaining list.
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
One of my favourites, in salute of Dubya, appeared in December:
"The bones in the mass graves salute you, Avenger of the Bones." -- Iraqi blogger Alaa
There was also this one:
"WHO the F-CK is that man? He's a f-cking traitor. Get his ass off the stage. Oh, F-CK him. Who IS that fat f-ck anyway?" -- Joan Collins critiques Michael Moore's Academy Award speech
And this one:
"They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them. But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are." -- Brigadier-General John Kelly on non-Iraqi Muslims fighting outside Baghdad. He continued: "They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour"
Posted by steve @ 03:39 PM EST [Link]
~ IT ACTUALLY WAS A GOOD YEAR: If you were a politically correct thug that is. Gillian Cosgrove illustrates some of the more egregious PC escapades that took place in Canada during 2003. My favourite was Patrick Watson's urging the Canadian government to launch a national newspaper because Canadians need an "independent" voice. I didn't sleep well at all that night...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:22 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER REASON GADDAFI BECAME A NICER GUY?: According to Canadian intelligence, al-Qaida backed militants in Libya have placed Muammar Gaddafi in their sights, one reason why he decided to make nice with the United States and Britain.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service report shows that Col. Gaddafi, once a major sponsor of terrorist violence, is now a terrorist target who shares a common enemy with the West: Osama bin Laden.
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is the most powerful radical faction waging holy war against Col. Gaddafi. It aims to establish an Islamic state in Libya and views the current regime as oppressive, corrupt and anti-Muslim, CSIS said.
"The group has clearly stated its view on the use of force, promoting the ideology that Libyan people can only gain freedom by actively supporting the mujahedin in the war against Gaddafi's regime," the report said.
Wow, I guess the enemy of your enemy really is your friend. Still, this does support the notion that the war against terrorism is reshaping the politics of the Middle East. When you have Gaddafi warning other rogue nations to stop messing around before they get Afghanistan/Iraq whomped, you know something major has shifted in the world. So I find myself in an odd position...Do I hope that Gaddafi not get whacked now?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:17 PM EST [Link]
~ GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD: Anyone who picked John Kerry to be the first to drop out of Mark Styen's pool undoubtedly will be displeased to learn that the senator is about to loan his own campaign more than $6 million by mortgaging his family's home. To be more accurate, he's borrowing money against the share he owns of his wife's home.
By all accounts Teresa Heinz Kerry, a Republican until her husband decided to run for the presidency, is a smart woman. I'm surprised she didn't tell him to stop wasting his money. If you have to fund your own campaign it should be a less than subtle sign you aren't very popular.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:07 PM EST [Link]
~ DEMS FOR BUSH: Joining Zell Miller, today former New York mayor Ed Koch announced that he will be voting for George W. Bush in 2004.
I intend to vote for President George W. Bush in the next election, because in my view he is best able to wage the war against international terrorism. There is no greater threat to the United States than that posed by Al-Qaeda and similar groups. President Bush has confronted that threat head on.
After 9/11, the President announced the Bush Doctrine, which in my opinion rivals in importance the Monroe Doctrine which barred foreign imperialism in the Western Hemisphere, and the Truman Doctrine which sought to contain Communism around the world. The Bush Doctrine, simply stated by the President before a joint session of Congress, is "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." The President has applied that doctrine in Afghanistan and Iraq and has put other countries on notice that he will do so elsewhere, if necessary.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:51 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 HEZBOLLAH IN AMERICA?: The Iran Politics Club says Iranian.com publisher Jahanshah Javid is tied to Hezbollah.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:39 PM EST [Link]
~ NO BLUNTS FOR YOU: Canada's Supreme Court ruled today to uphold a federal law banning possession of small amounts of pot. For the record, I'm in favour of legalization. That said, I don't care for most of the people on my side.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:15 PM EST [Link]
~ HITCH ON LIBYA: I can't believe I didn't see this earlier today. Christopher Hitchens says he agrees that Libya's announcement on WMDs this weekend is a result of the war against Saddam Hussein.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:12 PM EST [Link]
~ LIMBAUGH SAGA CONTINUES: The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports on the latest developments in the Rush Limbaugh painkiller story.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:49 PM EST [Link]
~ SOUNDS AS GOOD AS ANY PLACE: WorldNetDaily reports this morning that al-Qaida boss Osama bin Laden is currently in Iran. The basis of this report? A "respected Islamic leader."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:27 AM EST [Link]
~ BUT ALL THE EXPERTS SAID IT DIDN'T PLAY A ROLE: Moammar Gadhafi told CNN Monday evening that the American-led war against Saddam Hussein may have played a role in Libya's decision to renounce its WMD programs.
Apparently the only people who didn't know that were the so-called experts who credited Anyone But Bush.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:42 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: Always take advantage of an opening. Take me for instance on Saturday night and an attractive blonde. I saw you looking at me frequently and giving me a small smile. I know you wanted me to come over. I was only waiting for the band to take a break so I could talk to you without shouting. When you saw me leave, I was only going out for a cigarette. You unknowingly passed right by me outside when you left with your friend. You didn't give me the chance to come up to you. Or rather, I didn't take advantage of the opportunity.
It's the same with football. You have to take your opportunities when they come despite what difficulties come your way. Tampa Bay nearly came back against Atlanta but you can't let yourself go down 30-7 before deciding that you're going to make your play. The Buffalo Bills had a natural advantage playing at home against Miami, a series they've dominated when playing at Ralph Wilson Stadium in December (especially given Miami's tendency to collapse during the last month of play) but instead you got blown out.
Other games that cost me? Kansas City losing to Minnesota, Philadelphia losing to San Francisco and Indianapolis dropping the ball against Denver.
Props to Brett Favre who despite the loss of his father during the weekend, played Monday night and passed Fran Tarkenton on the career touchdowns list. He now only trails Dan Marino. MNQ offers its sincerest condolences to Favre who has long been one of the classiest men to ever play professional football.
A game ball should also go to Steve McNair who threw off his back leg for the entire game against Houston and looked better than most quarterbacks this weekend who had the full use of both their legs.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14
Week 9: 7 of 14
Week 10: 9 of 14
Week 11: 12 of 16
Week 12: 12 of 16
Week 13: 8 of 16
Week 14: 8 of 16
Week 15: 12 of 16
Week 16: 11 of 16Season %: 67 (+0.1% / 161 of 240)
I don't usually reward teams for messing up my pool sheet but I'll give it up for San Francisco this week with my selection of Tiffany as cheerleader of the week. How can you not love a cheerleader whose favourite quote is from Plato? When not cheerleading, Tiffany is a full-time student and enjoys Mexican food. ¡Estoy en amor!
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 22, 2003 I CAN ACTUALLY SEE THEIR POINT: Unions in the Czech Republic say that the constant playing of Christmas carols is driving retail workers insane.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:12 PM EST [Link]
~ PARTICULARLY SHAMELESS SELF-PROMO ALERT: I get a mention in Bruce Bartlett's latest syndicated column.
Posted by antle @ 05:37 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT A CLYMER: Yesterday career bureaucrat Wesley Clark announced he'd "beat the s**t" out of anyone who questioned his military record or patriotism (the same man who also said that he would allow Europe to veto America's foreign policy). Today? "Georgia for Wesley Clark" is using those words to raise money for his campaign. So we aren't accused of selectively quoting facts, the organization is unafiliated with Clark's presidential run.
No offense Wes, but you aren't no George Patton. You sound like a bloody joke making physical threats.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:07 PM EST [Link]
~ MEH: Gina Dalfonzo has a good piece over at NRO about the changes that Peter Jackson made in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, specifically what he did with Frodo (Elijah Wood).
Though I’ve enjoyed these three films, I have a bone to pick with the director and his team, a weakness that many other viewers have observed as well. Let me put it this way: Jackson never errs in the direction of making any character nobler. So while watching the second movie in the series, The Two Towers, I started to worry about what they were doing with Frodo, one of my favorite literary characters. I hadn’t a fault to find with Elijah Wood’s performance; he’s been consistently good throughout the films (and, it now turns out, extraordinarily good in the latest installment, The Return of the King. Wood communicates so effectively with his eyes in certain scenes that I’m inclined to think he made an extensive study of Jimmy Stewart’s famous wheelchair-bound performance in Rear Window). Again, it was the adapters who just couldn’t keep their hands off the character. Though the ring Frodo carries is notorious for driving people crazy, it seemed to me he was going crazy too early and too often.
There are alot of legitimate criticisms of Jackson's LotR and I could use quite a bit of space to spell them out but I'm taking today off after this post so perhaps I'll leave that for another day. I have to admit that I've been "meh" about the trilogy so far -- I don't think it's very bad but I'm not some fanboy who thinks it's the ultimate in Western cultural effort.
One thing I will argue about with Dalfonzo is her belief that Wood did a great job as Frodo. Not to become scatalogical or anything, but every time he looked scared in the trilogy -- which was pretty well the entire time -- he adopted the expression of a man who hadn't been near a bathroom for a day.
I will give Jackson his props with the Ents...he did a nice job with them though they should have gotten more screen time.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:59 PM EST [Link]
~ I WOULDN'T GIVE MY ALMA MATER A DIME: But if you are going to give money to yours, William C. Dennis has a few important suggestions for you.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:48 PM EST [Link]
~ CANADIANS LOVED IN KABUL: Good story out of Kabul: the Canadian soldiers are amazed at the economic progress in Kabul and Afghans love our boys in green.
Not surprisingly, the best line goes to former NHL tough guy Dave "Tiger" Williams:
"Any countries in the Western world that are not over here supporting this, they should absolutely be ashamed of themselves," he said after touring ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) headquarters.
"If they're not at least contributing with some funding, I mean, they should get a kick in the ass."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:34 AM EST [Link]
~ NEVER FORGET: William Safire says that we shouldn't be too enthused over Libya's renunciation of WMDs -- though it is good news -- and that we shouldn't forget the monster that Muammar Qaddafi is.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 04:28 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 21, 2003 WE LIKE ANZAR: Imitating George W. Bush, Jose Maria Aznar visits Spanish soldiers in Baghdad. We've always liked the Spanish here at ESR.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:40 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 20, 2003 YET ANOTHER CANADIAN LEADER DISSES U.S. COUNTERPART: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) He promised a new relationship with his American counterpart but it didn't take long for new Canadian prime minister Paul Martin to condescend to George W. Bush. That's the view of Edmonton Sun columnist Paul Stanway and I agree with him.
So, the first time Paul Martin chats with U.S. President George Bush, the new PM bugs him about Iraqi reconstruction contracts for Canadian companies and then lectures him on how to deal with Saddam Hussein.
I don't know about you, but if I were Bush I'd be thinking twice about calling back. The holier-than-thou pomposity evidenced by Martin during his 15-minute telephone call to the White House has, sadly, become ingrained in the world view of many Canadians.
The Americans have provided the bulk of our defence for 40 years. The U.S. is our largest trading partner by a mile and the source of much of our prosperity. We consume American culture with as much gusto as we consume American products, and because of this self-inflicted inferiority we feel the need to define ourselves, mostly, by an alleged superiority to the Americans!
Is there something in our Canadian DNA that makes us want to be jerks to Americans?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:03 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M SORRY...COULD YOU SAY THAT LOUDER?: The New York Times, a newspaper that could blame a cloudy day on the Bush administration, manages to avoid swallowing its own tongue today by crediting George W. Bush along with Tony Blair in the breakthrough over Libya.
Over the past five years, by turning over two suspects for trial, acknowledging its complicity in the Lockerbie bombing and paying compensation to victims' families, Libya finally managed to persuade the United Nations Security Council to lift the international sanctions that had shadowed its economy and its international reputation for more than a decade. Those sanctions were lifted in September. This page recommended lifting American sanctions as well, but President Bush left them in place pending further steps, most notably Libya's decision to end its unconventional weapons programs. It is now clear that he was right to do so. The added American pressure worked just as intended.
Wow, if only the paper could always be so forthright with its acknowledgments.
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 05:55 PM EST [Link]
~ FUNNY HOW MANY THINGS AREN'T BECAUSE OF DUBYA: Everyone is falling over themselves to argue that George W. Bush and his war against terrorism isn't responsible for Libya's announcement yesterday.
I hear that Dubya wasn't even responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:44 PM EST [Link]
Friday, December 19, 2003 SOME GOOD NEWS: U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today that Moammar Gadhafi has promised to destroy Libya's WMD program and stockpiles.
Bush said Libya's leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, had "agreed to immediately and unconditionally allow inspectors from international organizations to enter Libya.
"These inspectors will render an accounting of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and will help oversee their elimination," Bush said.
I've said this before and I guess I'm saying it again, but in the last couple of years Gadhafi has become really hard to figure out. If you listen to him he often sounds like any other respectable leader. Unlike many of his counterparts he showed real sympathy with the United States after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and he's made moves in recent years to act responsibly. Out of the blue, however, he'll occasionally make statements that remind you of the Gadhafi that Ronald Reagan decided to bomb into submission.
So is Gadhafi serious? The fact that Bush and Blair both believe so leads me to believe that the old boy will actually do what he says he will. Although some are arguing that Gadhafi is merely responding to the butt kicking the Iraqi army received at the hands of the coalition -- and dating Libya's new cooperative attitude to March of this year -- I believe the pattern goes further back then that.
He's got a bloody history given his support of international terrorism in the past but will we one day have arguments about what Gadhafi really was?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:57 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT IRAN REALLY MEANT: Michael A. Ledeen responds to an offer by Iran to allow international experts to inspect its nuclear sites and what's likely to happen to Ahmad Shirzad, a nuclear expert who may have told the world too much.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:21 PM EST [Link]
~ PADILLA V. RUMSFELD ISN'T OVER: Although the media was falling all over themselves to declare the ruling in Padilla v. Rumsfeld to be a major blow to the Bush administration, Eugene Volokh cautions that the legal battle is far from over.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:56 AM EST [Link]
~ IRAN BEHIND KHOBAR BOMBING, SAYS FREEH: Former FBI director Louis Freeh testified yesterday that he believes senior Iranian government officials funded and planned the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:51 AM EST [Link]
~ WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?: A little late but a couple of days ago a lawyer stood up and announced he'd be glad to defend Saddam Hussein. Would it surprise you to know that he's from France?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:43 AM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: I have a piece in today's American Spectator Online concerning Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. Rather than use her speech to highlight the battle against the theocratic regime destroying Iran, Ebadi instead chose to use much of her remarks to attack the United States.
Earlier this month Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi became the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. As she pointed out in her speech, she was the first Iranian and the first woman from a Muslim nation to win the prize. It was an extraordinary opportunity for Ebadi to speak of the turmoil in her country as Iranians are challenging the rule of the extremist theocracy. Instead she took her moment on the international stage not to criticize a brutal regime but to take aim at the West -- specifically the United States.
In her speech Ebadi criticized the war against terrorism, a war she should be reminded the West wasn't interested in until it was brought to its shores, as a global attack on human rights. During the past two years "some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of 11 September and the war on international terrorism as a pretext."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:44 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 18, 2003 AMERICANS FARSIGHTED...AND SHORTSIGHTED: A new Zogby Poll finds that Americans believe a potential nuclear crisis in Iran is the higest foreign priority. Unfortunately, fewer than half believe the rebuilding of Afghanistan is a high priority.
For God's sake, don't make the same mistake again.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:35 PM EST [Link]
~ STUDENTS TAKE OVER CAMPUS IN IRAN: According to translated copy by Radio Forda, students in Tabriz's Sahand University took control of the campus, announced member of the university's Islamic student council Behruz Safari. The takeover followed three days of sit-in protest against remarks by the university's president which students found offensive. Sahand's president Cheraqlou had created a fearful police atmosphere in the university, and summoned the students who dared to express their opinions to the disciplinary committee, he says, adding that students have asked the university president to resign.
Posted by steve @ 02:31 PM EST [Link]
~ ARREST AND TORTURE IN IRAN ON THE RISE: The National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates said today that the arrest and torture of pro-democracy activists in Iran is on the rise.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:28 PM EST [Link]
~ THE RETURN: Starting in early 2004, Canadians (particularly those in Western Canada) will once again have a conservative magazine. Ezra Levant has announced all the details.
Ezra, remember that resume I sent you!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:06 AM EST [Link]
~ GET SOMEONE ELSE TO START YOUR CAR GIMLI: John Rhys-Davies will likely have made a lot of enemies because of recent comments he made about defending civilization in connection with the storyline in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Pointing a finger at the media, Rhys-Davies went on, “What is unconscionable is that too many of your fellow journalists do not understand how precarious Western civilization is, and what a jewel it is… The abolition of slavery comes from Western democracy. True democracy comes from our Greco-Judeo-Christian Western experience. If we lose these things, then this is a catastrophe for the world.”
Rhys-Davies revealed that as far back as 1955 his father had predicted that “the next World War will be between Islam and the West.” The actor recalled his response: “I said to him, ’Dad, you’re nuts! The Crusades have been over for hundreds of years!’ And he said, ’Well, I know, but militant Islam is on the rise again. And you will see it in your lifetime.’ He’s been dead some years now. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and think, ’God, I wish you were here, just so I could tell you that you were right.’”
I always liked him.
Read on. (Scroll down to "Gimli raises axe for Western civilization")
Posted by steve @ 12:49 AM EST [Link]
~ POPE DUG 'PASSION OF CHRIST': According to the National Catholic Reporter, Pope John Paul II has seen Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ and liked it.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:41 AM EST [Link]
~ WHAT, WOULD YOU HAVE USED THOSE CAREER BUREAUCRAT SKILLS TO DO IT?: Wesley Clark announced Wednesday that by golly he would have caught that rascal Osama bin Laden already.
"If I'd been president, I would have had Osama bin Laden by this time," Clark said at a news conference in Concord, New Hampshire, where he was campaigning for votes in the nation's first primary, January 27.
"I would have followed through on the original sentiment that the president gave us -- Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.
"Instead, he executed a bait-and-switch. He took the priority off Osama bin Laden. He shifted the spotlight onto Saddam Hussein."
Of course you would have dude...you'd have caught him yourself with your own bare hands. I can't swear on this blog but I do have an acronym for the brave general: STFU.
Read the story here.
Posted by steve @ 12:38 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER TAKES QUESTIONS...FROM IRAN: Cool story...Iranian born Shaul Mofaz, who is Israel's defence minister, took and answered a stream of questions from callers listening to Israeli Radio. What's so interesting about that? The program was in Farsi and the callers were in Iran.
Shaul Mofaz was only six when his family emigrated from Iran to Israel. His knowledge of Farsi is rudimentary at best. But that didn’t stop the Israeli defense chief from getting his message across to a stream of callers from the Islamic Republic who appealed to him for help on Israel Radio’s Farsi service this week.
One caller from a city in central Iran asked when Israel and the Jews would finally repay their historical debt to Cyrus the Great and rescue the Iranian people from the dread ayatollahs, just as US President George W. Bush had helped the people of Iraq and Afghanistan throw off their oppressors.
(It was in 538 BC that Cyrus, king of Persia, fulfilling the word of God as spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah, issued a proclamation allowing the Jews to return to Zion from their exile in Babylon and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem.)
Mofaz, admitting he was not in the miracle business, wished the Iranian people success in their struggle for freedom. But then a stream of callers pleaded for Israel to intervene to help overthrow the Islamic regime. The defense minister replied it was up to the Iranian people to determine its fate. But he also mentioned the United States role in the region and said the Americans still had much work to do after prevailing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran and Syria were still there as key elements of Bush’s axis of evil.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:28 PM EST [Link]
~ PRIORITIES: Ardavan Bahrami bemoans the fact that Shirin Ebadi didn't use her Nobel Prize speech to talk about the plight of her people.
At this point in time when our students have been most courageous in their fight for democracy and secularism, one would have hoped that an internationally recognized lady such as Shirin Ebadi would have taken this unique opportunity and when the world media is focused on her speech to express her concerns for the lack of freedom, mass executions and the daily abuses of human right in our own country rather than broadcasting Islamic Republic's foreign policies regarding America's war against terror and Palestinians!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:24 PM EST [Link]
~ CRIMINAL-FRIENDLY SCHOOL ZONES
Another example of how our idiotic gun laws -- we do it "for the children", you know --do more harm than good. In two incidents recently in Richmond, VA, armed criminals attacked parents in gun-free school zones. Of course, since the parents are law-abiding citizens, they didn't have their guns in the gun-free school zone.
The story is in the Richmond, VA Times-Dispatch.
Disarming the victims only leads to more victims. And again we learn that criminals - being the criminals that they are -- don't obey laws. Amazing.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:12 AM EST [Link]
~ CYNICISM TO THE POINT OF NAUSEA
This from CNSNews.com:
'Madeleine Albright Thinks Bush Knows Osama's Whereabouts
(CNSNews.com) - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Fox News Channel analyst Morton Kondracke that President Bush may know where Osama bin Laden is - but is just waiting for the most politically advantageous moment to announce his capture. Kondracke said Albright was not making an accusation - but was harboring an "offhand" thought. "It was more a conspiratorial idea that popped into her head," he commented Wednesday morning on Fox & Friends. Albright is on a media tour to promote her new book, "Madam Secretary, A Memoir," and she made the controversial remark about Bush on Tuesday, off-camera in a Fox green room, while awaiting an appearance on "Special Report With Brit Hume." Kondracke called it "another example of the Democrats irrationally believing that the Bush administration is capable of absolutely everything, which is part of their political problem, I think."" '
These people are sick.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 09:46 AM EST [Link]
~ THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTS...: Leaders across the world reacted pretty quickly to George W. Bush's comments Tuesday evening that he believed Saddam Hussein deserved the "ultimate penalty" for his crimes against the Iraqi people. With the exception of Australian PM John Howard, everyone pretty well believes that the Lion of Babylon shouldn't be executed.
In the category of opinions that count, Britain is opposed to his execution but would go along if an Iraqi court ordered it while Howard had no problem with it at all.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:10 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 16, 2003 UNFAIR AND UNBALANCED: Isntapundit.com takes a survery of CNN's coverage of what's going on in Iraq and finds, not surprisingly, that bad news is always covered in depth while good news barely gets a mention.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 09:43 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY ARE THE LEAST RELIGIOUS THE MOST PRONE TO APPEAL TO RELIGION?: Documents found with Saddam Hussein link him to at least 14 guerilla groups -- dubbed 'Mohammed's Army' -- operating in Baghdad.
The documents describe minutes of meetings with Iraqi government officials who are believed to be financing such cells. They prove Saddam communicated with Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, No. 6 on the U.S. military's 55 Most Wanted list, the New York Post reported.
"We took one document that had obvious and immediate applicability to Baghdad and we acted on it," Gen. Martin Dempsey of the 1st Armored Division told Fox News. "There are many, many, many more documents."
U.S. commanders told Fox News there were five or six specific names listed in that document, which led to two raids Sunday and Monday night on more than 10 cells in Baghdad; two fighters were nabbed. A former Iraqi general was among those detained within 24 hours of Saddam's capture.
U.S. troops have recently broken up six to 14 cells in Baghdad, each made up of up to 25 people. Officials estimate they are still dealing with some 1,000 "hardcore" regime loyalists in Baghdad alone, who are paid by former regime members.
Minutes of meetings? Pretty anal for a guy living in a rat infested hole.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:57 PM EST [Link]
~ SO MANY CANUCKS, SO LITTLE TIME: In the spirit of Carnival of the Vanities/Capitalists, David P. Janes has launched Carnival of the Canucks, a weekly roundup of the best posts from Canadian blogs.
Carnival of the Canucks is a weblog collaboration design to gain exposure for blogs and posts you may not have seen during your regular week's readings. The Carnival will be hosted at a different blog every week. Each week's host blogger is responsible for gathering their favorite posts and posting their Carnival on Tuesdays.
Check out the first issue here.
Posted by steve @ 03:15 PM EST [Link]
~ TREASON CONTINUES
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), also known as "Baghdad Jim" for his past criticism of Persident Bush from Baghdad, has again shot off his treasonous mouth. This time, Baghdad Jim is claiming that US Military Forces could have caught Saddam Hussein anytime they wanted. The capture of the Butcher of Baghdad was timed to help Bush. "There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing," said McDermott. "It's funny," McDermott added, "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."
What's "funny", or at least absurd to the extreme, is that comments like this can come from a member of Congress, and that apparently intelligent people in Washington State actually vote for him.
Congressman, this is not a game. People die to protect your right to say stupid things. You should engage your brain before you run off at the mouth.
The story is here.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 11:56 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: I said last weekend never to change your picks after you've settled on them and yet again I didn't follow my own advice. This time I only changed one pick and it cost me. I went initially with Dallas but changed it to Washington after someone told me the home team always wins when those two teams play. Clearly this time that rule didn't apply.
Other disappointments? As much as I love my Bears, I didn't expect them to beat Minnesota, Baltimore's loss to Oakland was pathetic and Miami failed to win Monday night so forget about my giving them a 6 point spread. Bah. Still, after an awful couple of weeks I had 12 of 16.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14
Week 9: 7 of 14
Week 10: 9 of 14
Week 11: 12 of 16
Week 12: 12 of 16
Week 13: 8 of 16
Week 14: 8 of 16
Week 15: 12 of 16Season %: 66.9 (+0.6% / 150 of 224)
In honour of Cincinnati's fine victory over the Squared Sevens I offer Ben-gals cheerleader Amber as our Cheerleader of the Week. Amber is a graduate of Georgetown College in the field of cardiovascular research and has a brother serving in Iraq in the U.S. Marine Corp. Three words that describe her? "Patient, Energetic, Intelligent." I love her already!
Posted by steve @ 12:46 AM EST [Link]
~ WHO ASKED YOU?: Koffi Annan announced Monday that he opposes any trial that would see Saddam Hussein put to death afterward.
"The UN does not support death penalty. In all the courts we have set up (UN officials) have not included death penalty," Annan said in a brief encounter with reporters at the United Nations.
"And so as secretary general and the UN as an organization are not going to turn around and support a death penalty," Annan said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:24 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 15, 2003 GOOD LINE: Members of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division tell CNN that they thought their search of the location that turned up Saddam Hussein was simply another raid.
Outside the hovel, the soldiers saw a rug on the ground, pulled it back, and found an 8-inch thick piece of Styrofoam covering a narrow hole that appeared to be 6 to 8 feet deep.
They heard noises from below.
They were about to execute a "clearing procedure" -- firing into the hole or dropping a grenade into it -- when someone saw upraised hands belonging to a bearded, bedraggled man. The man had a pistol but did not fire it.
When the soldiers assisted the man from the hole, he said, in English: "I am Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq. I want to negotiate."
The soldiers replied: "President Bush sends his regards."
Good one.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:19 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S ONE WAY TO TRY AND WIN: Matt Drudge reports that the campaigns of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark may be in a little trouble due to leftist web site MoveOn.org.
Frustrated with the lack of domestic support, left-leaning website MoveOn.org has apparently been reaching beyond American borders to generate cash revenue over the internet!
The provocative international fundraising strategy threatens to embroil the presidential candidacies of General Wesley Clark and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
Both men are named on international fundraising websites suggesting donations to MoveOn.org.
Meanwhile, MoveOn.org, which has been running ads critical of the Bush Administration, has named an "International Campaigns Director," the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
It is not clear how much money has been raised -- to date-- from foreign sources, but political websites from London to Portugal to Montreal are directing their citizens to stop the American president George Bush by donating to MoveOn.org!
Tsk, tsk.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 07:19 PM EST [Link]
~ FUN IN TIKRIT: A pro-Saddam rally turned violent today in Tikrit after security forces moved in. One of the chants? "Saddam is in our hearts, Saddam is in our blood."
Given what we've heard about him, he probably quite literally stood in the blood of many Iraqis. At any rate, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police responded with a chant of their own.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 06:57 PM EST [Link]
~ AFTER THIS COMES OUT I CAN DIE IN PEACE: The trailer for Spider-Man 2 is now online! (Broadband a plus though there is an option for those with slower connections)
Doctor Octopus exceeded my expectations (though his lack of a German accent bothered me) and the movie -- at least in the preview -- looked as stunning as the first one. Now the only problem is waiting until July 2, 2004 for its release...Yeah, I'm a total geek.
Posted by steve @ 03:29 PM EST [Link]
~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Today is the 212th anniversary (December 15, 1791) of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the first Ten Amendments to the American Constitution. Warning to those lovers of big government: Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773).
Posted by steve @ 03:05 PM EST [Link]
~ LILEKS RETURNS...MOMENTARILY: James Lileks returns from his one month vacation briefly to discuss the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Right now the TV is playing a hastily assembled documentary of Saddam’s rise to power – it’s mostly clips of the butcher in tailored suits, smiling, at ease, in power. The suits always seem to blind certain people. They see the suits, they assume the best. They want to sign treaties, make contracts, lend money. Yes, yes, he is a hard man, but it is a hard part of the world, no? One must deal with someone. Saddam was said to have studied Stalin, and in one respect he trumped his idol. Stalin’s smile never reached his eyes. He was always looking around to see who on his team was smiling more than he was, or wasn’t smiling enough. But sometimes Saddam actually had a genuine smile. And why not? He had his people under his heel, and a good portion of the West in his pocket. The American presidents, they came and went. Granted, so did their bombs. But no American president knew what it was like to grow up poor in Tikrit. No American president had ever shot a man – soft hands, they had. They had big sticks, but big sticks taxed the arms of weak men, and they always laid them down eventually.
Pity Maureen Dowd is on vacation...she could have turned this into a loss for America!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:03 PM EST [Link]
~ DUDE, I HAD NOTHING BAD: Under questioning from his interrogators, Saddam Hussein has denied having any WMDs and is answering questions with nationalist and patriotic rhetoric. Lucky I'm not asking the questions...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:21 AM EST [Link]
~ NO LOVE LOST I GUESS: Who was that "close family member" who helped the Americans locate Saddam Hussein? According to Lebanese sources, it was none other than his second wife Samira Shahbandar. She had apparently been talking to the old boy every week by phone.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:07 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 14, 2003 MILLER Q&A: Dennis Miller submits to ten questions by Time Magazine in their December 22 issue.
Posted by steve @ 11:27 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO TELL GOD?: The New York Times has an account of the meeting between Saddam Hussein and the new leaders of Iraq. If you haven't heard, Hussein was less than apologetic for the evil he's responsible for.
Mr. Rubaie said he had asked the first question — which, he said, was met with a brutal and dismissive joke. He said he had asked why Mr. Hussein had killed two leading Shia clerics: Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr, killed in 1980; and Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, killed in 1999.
The word "sadr" means "chest" in Arabic, and Mr. Hussein replied, "Al Sadr or Ar Rijil?" That translates as: "The chest or the foot?"
Read on. (Free registration required)
Posted by steve @ 08:46 PM EST [Link]
~ HOW THEY GOT HIM: Newsweek has a good story on how they managed to capture the "Lion of Babylon". Of course, they couldn't resist saying the war was going badly for the U.S.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 08:20 PM EST [Link]
~ MY NEW DESKTOP IMAGE: I call it "Crazy Saddam"
Posted by steve @ 07:36 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY MARTIN...WHY?: Not even the French and Germans have called for Saddam to be sent to the Hague or some other joke court...but Canada did! In his response to the news, newly minted Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin stated:
"It will be a court of international jurisdiction," Martin said, adding that there are many formats such a tribunal could take.
"The tribunal will be one that is creditable and that justice will be done ... and I'm convinced that this will be the case."
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:57 PM EST [Link]
~ MY DREAM WILL COME TRUE: Well, earlier this week I did hope for a trial involving Saddam Hussein and now I will get my wish.
I know this will sound bloodthirsty but I hope the court, if it finds Hussein guilty, orders the death penalty. I'd also be partial to a Spandeau situation...
Posted by steve @ 03:35 PM EST [Link]
Friday, December 12, 2003 WEST FINED FOR 'HARSH' INTERROGATION: Lt. Col. Allen West, who faced possible court martial, has been fined $5 000.
The case stems from an incident August 20 at a military base in Taji, just north of Baghdad, when West was interrogating an Iraqi policeman, who was believed to have information about a plot to assassinate West with an ambush on a U.S. convoy.
In testimony at an Article 32 hearing -- the military's version of a grand jury or preliminary hearing -- West said the policeman, Yahya Jhrodi Hamoody, was not cooperating with interrogators, so he watched four of his soldiers from the 220th Field Artillery Battalion beat the detainee on the head and body.
West said he also threatened to kill Hamoody. Military prosecutors say West followed up on that threat by taking the suspect outside, put him on the ground near a weapons clearing barrel and fired his 9 mm pistol into the barrel.
Apparently not knowing where West's gun was aimed, Hamoody cracked and gave information about the planned ambush on West's convoy, thwarting the attack.
Five grand is a lot of money, even for a light colonel, but at least we can be happy that he wasn't drummed out of the service.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:49 PM EST [Link]
~ THE PROBLEM ISN'T EUROPE: Steven Den Beste reacts to the anger displayed by America's "allies" when they learned that they were barred from competing for contracts in Iraq. Den Beste argues that it isn't Europe that's mad at us as the media suggests.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:25 PM EST [Link]
~ IT HAS BEEN A GOOD YEAR: Okay, not one but two blogs concerning Mark Steyn! He has a great piece in today's Spectator about the year that was in 2003 and it's typical Steyn.
Other than that, it’s been a good year. Twelve months ago, Saddam Hussein was sitting on his solid gold toilet. He’s now on the run, moving every few hours and unlikely ever again to feel even a standard black plastic seat against his bottom. His sons are dead, so there’s no possibility of dynastic succession. There has been a noticeable decline in the number of suicide bombings against Israel, suggesting the intifada is having some problems without its sugar daddy. Conversely, there’s been an increase in pressure on the Saudi Arabian and Iranian regimes.
Not bad. Meanwhile, certain problems seem to have vanished entirely. A year ago, we were told that millions would die as Bush plunged Iraq into a humanitarian disaster, driving vast tides of refugees to destabilise neighbouring countries and leaving those who were left with a choice of starvation, cholera or dysentery: ‘The head of the World Food Programme has warned that Iraq could spiral into a massive humanitarian disaster,’ etc. For the first three months after liberation, the Big Consciences lobby attempted to argue that this humanitarian disaster was, in fact, happening: you’ll recall Will Day of Care International piling on the 500,000 tonnes of raw sewage in his column for the Daily Telegraph, ‘Things Are Getting Worse In Iraq, So Give The UN A Chance’. Mr Day demanded to know: ‘How long will it be before we see this contamination seriously affect the health of the population?’
As I responded back in June, ‘Seriously? Never.’
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:21 PM EST [Link]
~ BYE BYE MR. CHRETIEN: Mark Steyn revives an October 23, 2000 essay that I think perfectly illustrates outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Old or new, Steyn is always worth reading. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:12 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 11, 2003 EVEN ROSS PEROT KNEW WHEN TO QUIT: Ralph Nader announced this evening that he's "testing the waters" and may announce yet another bid for the White House.
He said if he were to run, he would focus his efforts on the third of the electorate that's not aligned with either party and with the 100 million adults who are non-voters.
Nader was in Princeton Thursday for a strategy session with Green Party activists to consider the pros and cons of another race.
He said his decision will be twofold: whether to run for the presidency at all, and whether to run again on the Green Party ticket.
Here's another choice: Go back to New York to your sister's multi-million dollar brownstone and do whatever you were doing before you thought you were a viable candidate.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 10:10 PM EST [Link]
~ PROMOTING DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD: Interesting study released today by Canada's Institute for Research on Public Policy on the promotion of global democracy around the world. Interesting to me, at any rate, because I've been thinking a lot about the subject over the past few weeks.
What troubles me about promoting democracy is something that Carnes Lord identified in his recently released book The Modern Prince. Lord argues that the concept of liberal democracy has been defined down in recent years to the point that all is expected of a "democracy" is free and regular elections. But, as he points out, does that mean that Russia is a liberal democracy?
Politically, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain the argument that democracy demands effort and sacrifice from citizens or that it has unique and social, educational, or cultural preconditions. Contrary to Aristotelian regime analysis, democracy tends to be treated simply as a collection of institutions and procedures rather than as a substantive ideal.
Admittedly Lord wasn't directly addressing the promotion of democracy but I think his point remains valid. I wonder, sometimes, if we're rushing nations too quickly on the path to democracy without understanding that several conditions are necessary before a nation can truly be called democratic and whether the citizens of a country -- such as Iraq -- are intellectually and culturally ready. That's why I argued in a recent essay that Iraq might adopt a longer term approach to democracy as Taiwan did. I suspect that many crusaders around the world are merely content with exporting institutions and procedures without addressing the far more difficult issue of nurturing the spirit of democracy.
That's not to say that Iraqis or anyone else is incapable of democracy, far from it. I'm merely suggesting that injecting democracy into a country takes more work than simply holding an election. If you want a good example of when it doesn't work you only have to look at Germany during the 1920s and 30s.
At any rate, read IRPP's report here. (PDF format, 148 kb)
Posted by steve @ 05:52 PM EST [Link]
~ IS THERE ANYONE AMONG THE DEMOCRATS WHO DOESN'T SOUND INSANE?: I realize attacking the sitting president is something that everyone does when they are seeking their party's nomination but this year's Democrats sound increasingly insane. The latest example is Wesley Clark.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:25 PM EST [Link]
~ PAKISTAN...WHOSE ALLY?: Sorry for the lack of blogging today. I'm feeling a bit under the weather and couldn't muster the energy to turn on the computer. At any rate, interesting story over at NRO about the nuclear link between Pakistan and Iran.
The Pakistani link is crucial to showing Iran's true motives. Pakistan, which tested two nuclear bombs in 1998, used centrifuges to make "highly" enriched (i.e., bomb-grade) uranium. Iran also has centrifuges. The IAEA discovered traces of highly enriched uranium on some of them. Tehran's reported explanation? "They came like that." From where? "We bought the equipment from a middleman."
The gossip is that Pakistan sold, directly or indirectly, the centrifuge equipment to Iran. The technology involves aluminum tubes — confusingly, the same technology that Saddam Hussein was reported to be interested in, although, to the glee of the war doubters, aluminum tubes found in Iraq so far have proved to be nothing more dangerous than casings for battlefield rockets. Aluminum tubes for centrifuges are decidedly "old-tech" but, in the absence of an alternative, can do the job, given enough time.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 05:16 PM EST [Link]
~ TALK ABOUT THE KETTLE CALLING THE POT BLACK: In audio recordings released today by the National Archives, Richard Nixon is heard calling Ronald Reagan "strange" and an "uncomfortable man to be around."
I never heard of Nixon winning any popularity contests...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:04 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 ROBERT BARTLEY, R.I.P.: One of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism has fallen silent. Robert Bartley, longtime editor of the Wall Street Journal, died of cancer today at age 66, just days after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush.
Although I strongly disagreed with him on some issues, Bartley not only was a journalistic giant but one who stood out for his advocacy of free markets, individual liberty and limited government. He turned the Wall Street Journal editorial page into the leading think tank and advocacy center for supply-side economics. He tirelessly promoted the incentive-enhancing power of lower marginal tax rates even before the 1980s, giving voice to the theories of such obscure economists as Jude Wanniski and Arthur Laffer. In part through his efforts, supply-side became national policy with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. These policies revitalized the American economy and transformed the Republican Party. Through his "Thinking It Over" column and his book Seven Fat Years, Bartley remained a staunch defender of the Reagan record.
Bartley's steadfast support for the engines of growth stoked by capitalism will be missed. You can read the Wall Street Journal obituary/editorial here.
Posted by antle @ 06:49 PM EST [Link]
~ AM I SUPPOSED TO SHED TEARS FROM THEM: Not surprisingly, Paul Wolfowitz's announcement today that countries which did not back the coalition war against Saddam Hussein will not be eligible for contracts provoked outrage.
While officials from some of the excluded countries speculated that the memo was not official U.S. policy, the White House put such notions to rest Wednesday, when spokesman Scott McClellan said decision to limit the list was "totally appropriate."
"The United States and the coalition countries, as well as others that are contributing forces to the efforts there and the Iraqi people themselves, are the ones that have been helping and sacrificing to build a free and prosperous nation," he said.
"I think it is totally appropriate for U.S. taxpayers' dollars to go to the entities I just mentioned."
I have no problem with that list -- and the fact that my country, Canada, isn't eligible -- because it was the U.S., British and Poles that shed blood in Iraq, not France, Germany, Russia or Canada. They refused to do the heavy lifting and now they think they can enjoy the fruits of the coalition's labour? Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that rebuilding Iraq was the "world community's common cause." Why didn't the world also think liberating Iraq to be its cause as well?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:49 PM EST [Link]
~ CAN THE U.S. HELP THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION?: The American Enterprise Institute held a forum last week involving Iranians on the topic of whether the U.S. could (or should) assist the Iranian opposition movement. You can find out the thoughts of what people in Iran thought right here.
Posted by steve @ 04:31 PM EST [Link]
~ HOW TO PROTEST IN FARSI: Interesting list came my way today courtesy of Blog Iran. It's a list of slogans that students in Iran have been chanting during their protests over the past few days. Some of them have their Farsi equivalents so if you find yourself outside of an Iranian embassy, feel free to shout them outloud.
Deektator haya kon mamlekat ra raha kon = Have Shame you dictators and leave the nation alone
Death to dictator
Khamenei Pinoche, Iran will not be another Chille
Students are awake and they are sick of Sad Ali
Amel har jenayat e een regime Velayate = The cause of all crimes of position are the Velayat (Supreme Leader)
Jomhooreeye Eslami degar asr nadarad, rahbar bejoz khodkoshee rahe degar nadarad = The Islamic Republic has no more effect, the leader has no way out exept for suicide
This is your last chance/final warning, the students are ready for the uprising
Posters and tracts that were distributed had many slogans in favor of US intereference in Iran. A poster read "Establish democracy with American boots", another one read "foreign oppression is preferable to domestic oppression" . The cover of a student magazine carried by everyone stated "Establishing democracy and freedom has the highest value even if its through occupation and foreign interference".
A tract read: "Our main enemy is not the US, our main enemy is inside of our house".
Some students called out these slogans to the chagrin of other students who felt sad that the situation had become so desperate as a result of 25 years of dictatorship that some would prefer a foreign invasion.These slogans included: "Amercia is Victorious the Dictators will be destroyed"
Other slogans urged non-participation in the next elections and demanded Referendum
Posted by steve @ 04:28 PM EST [Link]
~ CONTROLING THE INTERNET: ESR warned you about it earlier this week and now Glenn Reynolds weighs in about the U.N.'s bid to control the Internet.
Posted by steve @ 04:24 PM EST [Link]
~ FREE SPEECH, MEET CHAINSAW: The U.S. Supreme Court this morning upheld pretty well all of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (aka McCain-Feingold), ruling that the government is allowed to ban unlimited donations to political parties.
Congress may regulate campaign money to prevent the real or perceived corruption of political candidates, a 5-4 majority of the court ruled. That goal and most of the rules Congress drafted to meet it outweigh limitations on the free speech of candidates and others in politics, the majority said.
At the same time, the court acknowledged the 2002 law will not stop the flow of money in politics.
"We are under no illusion that (the law) will be the last congressional statement on the matter. Money, like water, will always find an outlet. What problems will arise, and how Congress will respond, are concerns for another day," Justices John Paul
In response, Madison Center General Counsel James Bopp, Jr. said: "The Court's affirmation of BCRA severely damages citizen participation in the American system of government and fundamentally alters American political discourse without any constitutional warrant and in direct contravention of constitutional mandate. The Court and Congress have empowered incumbent politicians, corporations owning media outlets, and wealthy individuals, at the expense of people of ordinary means."
I think that's the point Mr. Bopp.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:27 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: The Republican Party needs make inroads with minority voters. Bringing more Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and others into the party is not just good for the GOP; minorities (particularly blacks) would be better served than by being taken for granted by the Democrats and defusing the politicization of race and ethnicity would be good for the country as a whole. To that end, I'm a strong proponent of GOP minority outreach.
That being said, I've never been a fan of the argument that the party should abandon its principles and embrace unwise policies just to increase its share of the minority vote. This approach is doubly stupid when it doesn't lead to tangible gains in the communities it is designed to appeal to. It has become standard operating procedure for some advocates to push gullible GOPers into supporting policies that don't make sense and are even against their political self-interest by arguing that a group of people are "natural Republicans" who would vote that way if only the party would change its view on their one pet issue.
I address this myth in a piece for VDARE.
Posted by antle @ 09:20 AM EST [Link]
~ GAFFNEY, NORQUIST AND THE WAR ON TERROR: I've long been an admirer of conservative activist and tax reformer Grover Norquist's efforts on behalf of a number of causes I strongly believe in. He has done excellent work and his Americans for Tax Reform is a deservedly respected group.
However, former Reagan Defense Department official Frank Gaffney has written a detailed article allegeing that Norquist has troubling Islamist ties. Look for this to become a major debate among conservatives. You can read Gaffney's piece over at FrontPage Magazine, complete with an introduction from David Horowitz explaining why he ran the piece, here.
It will be interesting to see what Norquist's response is.
Posted by antle @ 12:24 AM EST [Link]
~ PAUL SIMON, R.I.P.: When I first read the news, I did a double-take fearing it was a reference to the singer-songwriter and half of Simon and Garfunkel. Instead it was former Sen. Paul Simon who died today, and it's still sad news.
Simon was one of my favorite liberal Democratic senators, and that isn't a huge list. A decent man who supported the balanced budget amendment and otherwise insisted that liberals should pay for their programs, he stood alongside Daniel Patrick Moynihan as one of the true intellectuals in practical politics. He'll be missed.
Posted by antle @ 12:11 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 9, 2003 THE MEDIA'S SKEWED MORAL COMPASS: (Via Brothers Judd Blog) Dennis Prager has a great piece up today about the death of Sylvia Bernstein and the obituary that ran in many of America's papers.
Though the passing of Mrs. Bernstein was reported in almost every major newspaper in the country, there is a good chance you missed it.
Too bad. Because the headline and the obituary tell you a great deal about the moral compass of mainstream American (and world) journalism.
For, if you read through the entire piece (almost always either a verbatim or edited Associated Press report), you will come across this one line: "Members of the Communist Party in the 1940s, the Bernsteins were targets of government scrutiny."
Note the headline: Mrs. Bernstein is described simply as a "civil rights activist." Indeed the whole obituary is a laudatory description of her and her husband's work "to desegregate area restaurants, an amusement park and pools and playgrounds. She advocated home rule for the District of Columbia and protested the Vietnam War and the development of nuclear weapons."
Quite a terrific lady, no?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:51 PM EST [Link]
~ DID BUSH FORGET HIS OWN RHETORIC ABOUT FREEDOM?: After meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, George W. Bush told reporters that he opposes independence for Taiwan.
"The United States policy is one China."
"We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo," Bush said, "and the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally, to change the status quo, which we oppose."
Dude, if the policy is one China, the status quo is that China claims possession of Taiwan. Therefore the only unilateral move is that Taiwan declares its formal independence. The Chinese can arguably do anything they like because they consider Taiwan to be a rogue province. Dubya, I'm disappointed with your China butt kissing.
And what is all this talk over? Taiwan plans to conduct a referendum to see if the Taiwanese people want to demand that China withdraw hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan and renounce the use of force against the island. Dangerous stuff there...well, dangerous to the bloody regime who realizes the Taiwanese won't be Tianamen Square'd into submission.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:35 PM EST [Link]
~ YOU COULD DO WORSE: I saw this at 7:00am but forgot to blog it until now. The Guardian reports that Israeli advisors are at Fort Bragg and training U.S. Special Forces in counterinsurgency operations.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.
US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been launched against US troops.
...
US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a group focused on the "neutralisation" of guerrilla leaders is being set up, according to sources familiar with the operations.
Not surprisingly England's combination of Pravda and Al-Jazeera spins this is as something abhorent (even referring to the units as "assassination squads", quoting "a former senior US intelligence official" (who? Joseph Wilson or Valerie Plame?) stating this is "bonkers, insane." I find it funny that The Guardian wasn't able to find one person who thought it was a good idea to draw on the experience of the Israelis.
This is precisely the kind of tough approach a lot of us were calling for months ago. I honestly don't see why the Pentagon didn't realize the need for this immediately after the war when the Sunni triangle clearly remained a danger spot.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:22 PM EST [Link]
~ SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS: The editor of the Al-Siyassa recently wrote that the enemies of America do not understand that this is a new United States, not one chased out of Beirut.
They are living in the past and they can see only the history of the United States. They think America is the same country that withdrew from regions where it incurred heavy casualties, such as Vietnam, Beirut in 1982, and Somalia. They refuse to see the recent history of the US in Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and in the war to liberate Kuwait. Americans weren't fazed by suicide bombings. Trucks laden with deadly bombs and driven by suicide bombers failed to scare them. Instead, such attempts have steeled their resolve to accomplish their mission in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places. ... The United States is not going to quit. Instead, it will convert poles of Jihadi flags into arrows to pierce the hearts of terrorists - who ultimately will be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Well said.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:07 PM EST [Link]
~ U.S. SOLDIERS HURT IN CAR BOMB ATTACK: This just in, 31 U.S. soldiers were hurt after a car bomb exploded in Tal Afar at their barracks.
Posted by steve @ 02:46 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: Let this weekend be a lesson to you: If your gut instinct combined with good research leads you in a direction then follow it. I had my picks ready Friday afternoon and was fairly confident until I began filling the sheet out. Once there I was beset with doubt and began changing my picks. Had I stuck with my original picks I would have won the weekend at two bars and collected a large sum of money. Stupid, stupid me.
So what cost me? I originally picked San Diego but went with Detroit, picked Denver at first but settled on Kansas City, had Jacksonville but then went with Houston, decided on Washington but then went with the thorn in my side New York Giants and finally picked Atlanta but then went with Carolina. That's five games I tossed away for nothing.
Along with those dummy moves, New Orleans and Tennessee didn't come through and picking St. Louis by 17 to beat Cleveland was a tad optimistic. End result? 8 right when I could have had 12. Stupid, stupid me.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14
Week 9: 7 of 14
Week 10: 9 of 14
Week 11: 12 of 16
Week 12: 12 of 16
Week 13: 8 of 16
Week 14: 8 of 16Season %: 66.3 (-1.4% / 138 of 208)
In honor of Michael Vick's return as a starter and a good game I offer Falcons cheerleader Kiffany, who says her most prized possession is her Bible. Unfortunately for all of us single men out there, Kiffany is engaged to be married. I'm sure all of Hotlanta weeps over this fact.
Posted by steve @ 02:42 AM EST [Link]
~ PUSHED OR JUMPED?: David Warren no longer writes for the Ottawa Citizen and it is because of an essay he wrote entitled "Multiculturalism" which you can read here (and in Monday's National Post).
Apparently the Citizen asked Warren to rewrite it and he refused and now he no longer appears in the paper. His web site hasn't listed whether he quit or he was fired. I know a few people at the paper and hopefully I can get an answer.
Posted by steve @ 12:38 AM EST [Link]
~ A MESSAGE FROM BERNARD GOLDBERG: ARROGANCE. That’s the name of the book I just wrote … which I assure you, is not going to make Dan Rather or Barbara Walters very happy. Peter Jennings won’t be thrilled either. Ditto for Diane Sawyer and Tom Brokaw – and a whole bunch of other news celebrities who love looking down everybody else’s throat but hate it when they find themselves on the wrong end of the examination.
Too bad.
How much are they going to hate ARROGANCE? Enough to make sure I don’t get through the front door of any of the networks to talk about the book. They have already made that abundantly clear. Liberals who bash the president and call him a Fascist are welcome. Liberals who love America, just not the one we currently live in, are welcome. Guys like me who write books exposing how entrenched their liberal biases are … are not welcome. As I write this, 60 Minutes won’t let me on; Dateline won’t; 20/20 won’t. Katie and Matt won’t; Diane and Charlie won’t; the people at CBS won’t – not one network news executive or on air celebrity will let me talk about ARROGANCE on any of their programs – even the ones that are on at three in the morning.
To which I say: Thank God for the Internet … and for talk radio and cable television … places that welcome voices and points of view that the big, so-called mainstream news outlets routinely silence.
Of course, NBC, ABC and CBS News are all private companies and they can put anyone on that they want – and can also keep anyone off. I have no “right” to talk about bias in the news on their networks. But it seems to me that if they’re going to play that game then they lose their “right” to tell the world that they have no biases and no agendas.
Liberals screamed and yelled when CBS decided not to run the movie about the Reagans. Liberals said CBS was caving in to right-wing pressure groups that wanted to silence voices they don’t like. Take it from me, my friends: Liberals are the real pros when it comes to silencing voices they don’t like. And it’s not just me I’m talking about. Tammy Bruce is a conservative feminist from California. She’s smart and has a lot of interesting things to say. You can hear her on cable and on talk radio. But because she’s a conservative, she’s not mainstream enough for the big three networks. It’s the same with black people who have the nerve to stray from the liberal plantation. Every now and then they’ll wind up on network television, but more often than not they’re relegated to the ghetto – cable.
That’s why the Internet has changed the world. It has democratized information. It used to be that we had a free press … as long as you could afford the press. Now, those “unpopular” voices get a chance to be heard. Our ideas get to be talked about. Without the web the networks would have even more power – power to decide who is mainstream and who is fringe, which views are acceptable to the big American audience and which views are not.
Let me briefly tell you what ARROGANCE is not about. It’s not about proving that there’s a liberal bias in the news. I did that already, in my first book, BIAS. Either you believe that liberals not only control the big time news media and that their liberal views slip into all sorts of stories … or you don’t. ARROGANCE kicks the debate up to the next level. It exposes how those entrenched biases actually work; it exposes how liberal caucuses inside the newsroom – black caucuses, gay caucuses, Hispanic caucuses – influence and shape how stories are covered; how the system is so corrupt that it’s practically inevitable news will slant to the Left.
The media elites are like those old tinhorn dictators in some banana republic. They have all the power. They decide how they’re going to do things. They have no respect for their own people. And anyone who speaks up gets smacked down. It’s good being the dictator … until … until the moment the people rise up and say, “We’ve had enough!” That’s what’s happening now, I think. The networks are losing viewers by the truckload.
And still, they deny, deny, deny that they have a credibility problem. But in the age of the Internet and talk radio and cable television, denial is not a winning strategy.
In ARROGANCE, I write about the comfortable little bubble so many of the news elites live in … in places like New York City and Washington; a bubble where they can go for a day, a week, a month, a year – where they can go practically a whole lifetime! – and not run into anyone who disagrees with them about anything really important.
And here’s why I say the system is corrupt – from top to bottom. The people at CBS News have the same set of values as the people at NBC News who have the same set of values as the people at ABC News who share the same worldview as the people at the New York Times and the Boston Globe and the L.A. Times. They see all the big issues pretty much the same way. And they think everyone else who sees the world differently is fringe -- “right-wing nuts” not to be taken seriously.
I’m convinced the elites are so arrogant that they simply cannot fix the problem themselves. Half the time they’re clueless, not even seeing their biases, the other half they flat out refuse to see their biases. ARROGANCE is their wake up call. Which is why I have decided to help them get right with the American people. In my book, I offer them a 12-step program. If 12 steps are good enough for alcoholics, they ought to be good enough for journalists.
Here’s a sample:
Step 3: A Newsroom That Thinks Like America
Right now the only kind of diversity in most big, important newsrooms is skin-deep diversity. That’s not good enough. In Step 3 I lay out a roadmap for real diversity. But it means the elites will actually have to rub elbows with Middle Americans. I never said this would be easy.
Step 8: Tell the Whole Story
How does a journalist stick it to someone he doesn’t like? Tell only half the story. Liberals rightly condemn Joseph McCarthy and the politics of half-truths and innuendo. It’s time for them to learn that the ethical rules apply to them, too.
Step 9: Don’t Confuse Journalist with Activist
As a great newspaper editor once said, “I don’t care if my reporters the elephants, but if they do, they’re not covering the circus.” In other words – if we really need other words – reporters can’t take sides and then cover the story. But they do.
As I say, that was just a sample. In ARROGANCE you can read all 12 steps, some of them pretty funny, I think … all of them very serious. The elites may not like the few I’ve just shared with you … but they’ll absolutely hate the others. I almost feel sorry for them. So here’s what it comes down to: The media elites can take the 12 step solution and start to shape up … or they can become the journalistic equivalent of the leisure suit – harmless enough, but hopelessly out of date. The ball is in their court.
Thanks,
Bernie Goldberg
---
Read our review of Goldberg's book here.
Posted by steve @ 12:35 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 8, 2003 JANKLOW FOUND GUILTY: The jury did not buy Rep. Bill Janklow's defense that he had a diabetic reaction when he struck and killed a motorcyclist in his car. It is now being reported that he was found guilty of manslaughter.
Posted by antle @ 07:08 PM EST [Link]
~ IF TRUE, THIS IS HUGE FOR DEAN: It is being reported that Al Gore is going to endorse Howard Dean. If true, to me this suggests two things.
One, is that not only is Howard Dean the prohibitive front-runner, but that there are huge obstacles to any of his opponents emerging as a viable anti-Dean alternative. This would be a strong reason for establishment Democratic leaders like Gore to reconcile themselves to Dean winning the nomination.
Two, Gore may be following the Richard Nixon strategy to winning the Democratic nomination in 2008. Remember that Nixon, narrowly defeated in 1960 in an election many of his backers thought was stolen from him, broke with a lot of the GOP establishment and supported Barry Goldwater in 1964. Not only did he endorse him and give a positive speech on his behalf at the national convention, he campaigned for him. When the Goldwater campaign went down in flames in the fall, he had built a lot of chits with conservative Goldwaterites while still retaining his image among party elders as a cooler head who would make a more viable candidate in the next general election. Could Gore have this in mind as he throws his support to Dean?
If this report proves accurate, I would also say it is a major setback for Joe Lieberman. His status as Gore's running mate on the 2000 ticket was his strongest claim to the 2004 presidential nomination.
UPDATE: Ramesh Ponnuru has a clever observation on a reported Gore endorsement of Dean over at The Corner: "No word yet from McGovern, Mondale, or Dukakis. . . . Come to think of it, the Ds now have a candidate with McGovern's foreign policy, Mondale's domestic policy, Dukakis's regional background, and Gore's arrogance. How perfect is that?"
I agree with him as far as the general election goes, but as far as the Democratic primaries are concerned the only endorsements more coveted than Gore's are Bill and Hillary Clinton's.
Posted by antle @ 06:19 PM EST [Link]
~ SO WHO WILL PLAY THE HERMAN GOERING ROLE?: The Iraqi Governing Council today approved the creation of a war crimes tribunal.
Governing Council member Mahmood Al Uthman said the resolution creating the tribunal will be sent to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator for Iraq. Bremer's signature is required for the proposal to become law.
Dara Noor al-Din, an Iraqi judge who led a panel that drafted the statute, said the tribunal will include five Iraqi judges and will target the most important members of Saddam's ousted government. It also will prosecute other unspecified crimes.
I almost Saddam Hussein is still alive so that I can see him in the docket.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:39 PM EST [Link]
~ HELP US PICK OUR PERSON OF THE YEAR: In case you haven't checked out the new issue of Enter Stage Right, we're seeking nominations for our Eighth Annual Person of the Year. Fill out a nomination ballot here (where you can also find a list of previous winners).
Posted by steve @ 04:34 PM EST [Link]
~ GOSH, THE ANTIWAR SIDE WAS RIGHT: AP reports today that it's now believed that Saddam Hussein killed 61 000 residents of Baghdad, far more than previously thought.
The survey, which the polling firm planned to release on Tuesday, asked 1,178 Baghdad residents in August and September whether a member of their household had been executed by Saddam's regime. According to Gallup, 6.6 percent said yes.
The polling firm took metropolitan Baghdad's population -- 6.39 million -- and average household size -- 6.9 people -- to calculate that 61,000 people were executed during Saddam's rule. Most are believed to have been buried in mass graves.
The U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq has said that at least 300,000 people are buried in mass graves in Iraq. Human rights officials put the number closer to 500,000, and some Iraqi political parties estimate more than 1 million were executed.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:55 PM EST [Link]
~ FLYPAPER...MEET FLY: Newsweek reports that al-Qaida is abandoning Afghanistan and concentrating its resources to attacking American targets in countries like Iraq. Doubtless many will see this as proof that the war on terrorism is failing but do remember this: Al-Qaida is leaving Afghanistan because they are losing and in Iraq they'll met up with a far stronger American presence.
Newsweek (not surprisingly) spins this news as bad for the U.S. but I think it's proof positive that the pressure being placed on al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations is working.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:28 PM EST [Link]
~ IS WRONG TO BE IN LOVE WITH HER?: Isabel Lyman once told me to stay out of bars because all I met was shallow and vain women so I'm leery about stating on the public record that I absolutely love TLC's What Not to Wear co-host Stacy London.
I don't know if she's vain and shallow but she has got great style. All she seems to wear are dresses and there's nothing I love more than a woman in a dress. Knee length and not tight...
Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
~ SO THE "45 MINUTE" CLAIM WAS TRUE: An Iraqi colonel says he was the source of information that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and was capable of firing them within 45 minutes of orders given.
In September of 2002 the British government published a controversial intelligence report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, claiming WMD could be launched within 45 minutes. Al-Dabbagh said he believed he was the source of the claim, which was widely criticized as being a ploy by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to gain support for military action in Iraq.
"I am the one responsible for providing this information," al-Dabbagh, 40, told the Telegraph when shown the dossier. "It is 100 percent accurate."
"Forget 45 minutes, we could have fired these within half-an-hour," he was quoted as saying.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:15 AM EST [Link]
~ PERHAPS THEY CAN'T HANDLE REALITY: Mark Steyn had a good article in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times that unfortunately I didn't see until just now. He states the obvious (but in his entertaining way): People who criticize Bush and the war on terrorism live in their own reality.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 12:26 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, December 7, 2003 SELF-PROMO ALERT: A review I wrote of Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? ran in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel today. Read it here.
Posted by steve @ 11:02 PM EST [Link]
~ F YOU, DUBYA - JOHN KERRY GETS MADDER THAN HOWARD DEAN: John Kerry, my other senator besides Teddy Kennedy, has apparently dropped the F-bomb in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in a diatribe against President Bush. This is probably the first time a major candidate has used profanity to describe his opponent, in this case a sitting president, in a public interview.
Now, I have been known to use blue language on occasion myself, so I am not going to tut-tut about how this makes Kerry unfit for the presidency anymore than I thought George W. Bush was unfit because he called Adam Clymer a naughty word during the 2000 campaign or Richard Nixon was unworthy because of his swearing in the Oval Office. But I do think his comment was intemperate and pretty dumb. He's trying to show Rolling Stone readers he's hip and rebellious while tapping into the anger that Howard Dean has so successfully exploited in his presidential bid.
Of course, the question is whether Kerry is angrier at Bush or Dean. After all, this time last year Kerry appeared to be the Democratic front-runner. Now his presidential candidacy is in serious trouble, all because he is trailing (even in his homestate) a fellow New Englander who is raking him over the coals for his vote in favor of the Iraq war.
Read the full story here.
Posted by antle @ 01:21 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, December 6, 2003 IT'S TRUE...NO ONE BELIEVES ANYTHING: A couple of weeks ago ESR spotlighted Chauncey Mabe's "A reluctant citizen of Planet Porn", a column he wrote for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. I and Chauncey go back to last year when he started running some of my reviews in the Books section and we've been trading some emails back and forth about his essay since it appeared. A recent Elizabeth Nickson essay doesn't talk about the same thing and yet it does. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:48 AM EST [Link]
Friday, December 5, 2003 AL-QAIDA PREPARING TO STRIKE AGAIN?: An al-Qaida tape that appeared this week shows the attack on the World Trade Centre from an angle not seen before and intelligence indicates that another attack could happen soon.
Posted by steve @ 06:01 PM EST [Link]
~ STAYING IN TONIGHT?: This press release may interest you:
Project 21's Horace Cooper to Appear December 5
Project 21 national advisory council member Horace Cooper is scheduled to be a guest on the Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes" program on Friday, December 5, 2003 at 9pm eastern. He will discuss the African-American leadership network's call for an investigation of NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. president and director-general Elaine R. Jones.
Memos recently leaked from the Senate Judiciary Committee say Jones contacted the office of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on April 17, 2002 in an effort to delay the confirmation of judicial nominees to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals until after that court decided on a challenge to the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy (the school's policy was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court this past June). According to the memo, Jones - who was participating in the case - was concerned that "if a new judge... is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able... to review the case and vote on it."
The complaint, filed with the Virginia State Bar on December 4, 2003, charges that "Ms. Jones violated both the spirit and letter of the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct when she intentionally acted to influence and disrupt an impartial tribunal that was then in the deliberative process of considering a landmark constitutional case in which she was counsel to one of the parties." Project 21 is joined by the Center for Individual Freedom, the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary and the Congress of Racial Equality in submitting the complaint against Jones.
If the memo is accurate, it shows an apparent attempt by Jones to "intentionally... disrupt and exert improper influence on the judicial body having her client's pending case by requesting that a U.S. senator and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee stack the judicial deck in her favor." Other leaked memos indicate that liberal special interest groups were able to exert an extraordinary influence on the Committee during the 2001-2003 tenure of Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT). The memos are available here.
Posted by steve @ 05:56 PM EST [Link]
~ LIKE TEARS IN THE RAIN: Many of us like to believe that Ronald Reagan still occasionally has moments of clarity but unfortunately that isn't the case, as Patti Davis explains.
In related news, conservatives are pushing to have Reagan on the dime.
Posted by steve @ 02:50 PM EST [Link]
~ DUDE....TAKE A...ERR...PILL!: Rush Limbaugh's attorney today accused the state prosecutor of playing politics in his investigation of the conservative talk show host.
Roy Black said Limbaugh was not a target of State Attorney Barry Krischer's investigation into the illegal sale of painkillers until the National Enquirer in October quoted Limbaugh's maid as saying she had unlawfully sold the conservative radio commentator such medications.
"Suddenly an elected public official could not ignore the name Rush Limbaugh," Black said on NBC's "Today" show. Black is also a paid NBC commentator. "They are looking to publicly embarrass him and effect his radio program....Why is Rush Limbaugh only person treated like this in America?"
Dude, I love Rush as much as any one can but he did cop to being a pill head...Krischer isn't on the side of the angels but neither is El Rushbo. Besides, did he expect a prosecutor to send a message to the public that celebrities won't get investigated?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:23 PM EST [Link]
~ ACTUALLY, I KNOW A SOUTH PARK REPUBLICAN: We went to see Jesse Jackson together back in the early 90s when he appeared at Laurentian University. We were both confirmed dittoheads and brought a copy of Limbaugh's books for Jackson to sign.
At any rate, the reason I tell you all of this is because Stephen Stanton has an interesting essay over at TechCentralStation about whether South Park Republicans really exist. Oh yes, and my friend does love South Park...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:00 PM EST [Link]
~ TRULY OBNOXIOUS SELF-PROMO ALERT. Jesse Walker, the managing editor of Reason Online, writes about the presidential debates and notes the topics that never get mentioned in these boring exchanges. Like? Like homeschooling. Note where Ground Zero of this educational revolution begins, if you click on the link in his piece.
Posted by izzy @ 12:48 PM EST [Link]
~ SELF-PROMO ALERT: A report came out earlier this week that stated it would take decades to rebuild the Canadian Armed Forces into a viable fighting unit able to carry out Canada's foreign policy goals. I've written about the future of Canada's military in today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record which you can read by clicking "More".
[more]
Posted by steve @ 01:54 AM EST [Link]
~ I HAVEN'T BEEN TO A VIDEO PARTY SINCE THE 80S: In a counter action against recent "Bush-bashing" parties, more than 3,000 people have agreed to host "Left-bashing" Video Parties sponsored by RightMarch.com on Sunday, Dec. 7.
RightMarch.com's "Video Parties" are a strategic thrust against its liberal nemesis MoveOn.org, the far left organization responsible for spearheading about 2,500 house-parties on the same night featuring a "brow-raising" video about President Bush and the war in Iraq.
"It took MoveOn.org two weeks and millions of dollars to get 2,500 people to host a house party for their documentary," said William Greene, founder of RightMarch.com. "It took RightMarch.com 2 days and some spare change to get over 3,000 people to host a video party for our documentary."
"I think it's easy to see who speaks for mainstream America," quipped Greene.
RightMarch.com encouraged its members to connect with their community via informal get-togethers.
Visit http://www.rightmarch.com/ to view a copy of the 20-minute video, "Eagle Strike."
For more information, contact rightmarch@rightmarch.com, or call (630) 848-0750
Posted by steve @ 01:47 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, December 4, 2003 I MAY SLEEP BETTER, BUT ALL IS NOT QUITE RIGHT WITH THE WORLD: Now, I can understand the political case for the recent Medicare expansion to include prescription drug coverage, a fulfillment of one of President Bush's 2000 campaign promises. But does Dubya really have to hang up on conservatives who actually believe in smaller government?
Posted by antle @ 11:39 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY I LIKE BRIAN TIEMANN: I know he's one of those reflexively fanatic Apple Mac users but Brian Tiemann is also funny. Go here and find out why. He's so right...
Posted by steve @ 07:22 PM EST [Link]
~ FUNNY: Instead of buying Michael Jackson's "Number Ones", why not check out what other Amazon.com customers recommended.
Posted by steve @ 07:10 PM EST [Link]
~ AT LEAST I DIDN'T MAKE THE LIST: Alan Caruba's Boring Institute has released its list of the most boring celebrities of 2003. The list officially comes out Monday but we got some juice with Alan and you can see it right now.
Happy 20th anniversary to the institute!
Posted by steve @ 06:54 PM EST [Link]
~ JIM ANTLE TO SLEEP EASIER TONIGHT: George W. Bush announced today that he has ended the special tarrifs on steel he implemented back in March 2002.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:21 PM EST [Link]
~ AEI HEARS FROM IRANIANS: The American Enterprise Institute interviewed a bunch of cats from Iran and broadcast the results into that country on shortwave radio.
Perhaps more important than having Iranians hear their fellow countrymen and women criticize the regime, perhaps some people in Washington, D.C. heard it as well.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:12 PM EST [Link]
~ COOL STORY OF THE WEEK: New Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has been logging on to a Sox bulletin board and interacting with fans. At first, no one believed that C_Schilling1966 really was who he said he was but eventually it was proven. That is so cool.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:38 AM EST [Link]
~ AUSTRALIA TO JOIN AMERICAN MISSILE SHIELD: Where Canada continues to hedge the Australian government goes. Australia announced today that it will be joining the United States in the development of a missile shield. The Japanese announced separately that they'll be creating their own to defend against North Korea.
"We believe that taking part in the U.S. program will serve our strategic interest, help us defend Australia and allow us to make an important contribution to global and regional security," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Separately, local media in Japan said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is planning to introduce a missile defense system to protect against the threat posed by North Korea.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:25 AM EST [Link]
~ PAT TILLMAN: AMERICAN HERO: Remember Pat Tillman? He was the Arizona Cardinals strong safety who quit football and joined the Army Rangers after September 11, 2001. Paul Beston has some thoughts on Tillman and how he reflects on the average showboating big-mouthed NFL football player.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:21 AM EST [Link]
~ FEAR NOT TAIWAN: Steven Den Beste argues that Taiwan has little to fear from Chinese sabre rattling.
For the most part I agree with him but I think he gives China's nuclear capabilities too little credit. I agree with his assertion completely, however, that any attempt at landing soldiers onto Taiwan would be a suicidal move by China. Taiwan wouldn't need the help of the U.S. in defending itself.
Posted by steve @ 03:03 AM EST [Link]
~ DID YOU KNOW THAT IRAQ WAS A MUSLIM NATION?: (via Brothers Judd Blog) I ask because Thomas Friedman expects that this bit of news will be shocking to you.
Are you sitting down?
We've encountered many surprises since we invaded Iraq, but now that the political process is under way the biggest surprise may be just around the corner, and it's this: The first post-Saddam democratic government that the U.S. gives birth to in Iraq may be called the Islamic Republic of Iraq — and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I told you to sit down.
As Orrin Judd points out in his blog, why does Friedman expect us to be surprised that Iraq will be a Shi'ite republic. Who didn't expect this?
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:56 AM EST [Link]
~ HOW TO DESTROY ANY CHANCE OF GETTING WORK DONE: A while ago I purchased the amazing BBC mini-series Brideshead Revisited.
I first saw the series on A&E back in the early 1990s while I was in university. Every Sunday at midnight or so they would air a few episodes back to back and I sat transfixed until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Given that I had to be up at 7:00am for class it wasn't a bright move but it was well worth it. I immediately fell in love with it and waited in vain for over a decade until someone re-aired it. After TVO aired it last year I decided to just buy the bloody thing and now own the 3 DVD set of the series.
When I first watched it those years ago it caught me at a bad time in my life. I was, for the lack of a better term, depressed about many things and the series didn't exactly help. From its mournful music to the vanishing life of the aristocracy to the ruin of Sebastian Flyte, BR is a very sad story on many levels. As one reviewer pointed out, even the happiest character -- the young Cordelia Flyte -- has a sad story. Too young to have really enjoyed the glory of the aristocracy and yet too old to be unaware what passed from her life. I suppose I latched onto it as an underline to my own losses.
As I got older and read the book, I began to discover deeper levels in the story and today take somewhat of a different view. Sad, indeed, but it also carries other messages for the reader.
At any rate, I only decided to watch one episode tonight out of the 11 but instead fell down the rabbit hole and 'accidentally' watched the first five episodes. So much for those two articles I was going to write tonight...
Interesting trivia: The home to the Marchmain family, aka Brideshead, that you saw in the movie actually belongs to the Howard family and is called Castle Howard. The family has owned that land since 1577. The main building itself was started in 1699. You can learn more about Castle Howard, which is open to the public (a fact that makes me sad for some reason), here
Posted by steve @ 12:36 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, December 3, 2003 IT WASN'T EVEN A SEX VIDEO: Is it any surprise that Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's new reality TV show trounced "The Tracy Morgan Show" in the ratings?
Posted by antle @ 11:46 PM EST [Link]
~ WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE EXPECTED THE PRESIDENT TO DO?: Some media outlets still haven't gotten over President Bush's failure to give them a head's up on his surprise Thanksgiving visit to Iraq to visit the troops. Nicholas Stix is absolutely scathing in his response to this and other efforts to place special interests above national security in this piece for Toogood Reports.
Posted by antle @ 11:41 PM EST [Link]
~ THOSE WHO LIVE IN SPIN WILL LIE IN SPIN: Speaking of Deroy Murdock, he had a terrific piece in NRO rebutting the slur that Ronald Reagan did nothing about AIDS and hated gays. Remember: Reagan took the position he did on gay schoolteachers back in 1978, when even many liberals would have been afraid to do so. A couple of other pieces correcting the record on these issues can be found here and here. (Kmiec's article is especially important.)
Did Reagan handle AIDS, then a new disease about which there was much public fear, ignorance and confusion, in a manner that is beyond criticism? No, absolutely not. But he also certainly does not deserve the maliciously false impression created by "works" like "The Reagans."
Posted by antle @ 11:33 PM EST [Link]
~ I'M QUITE FAMILIAR WITH UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS: Andy over at World Wide Rant says that the "Foot in the Mouth Award" that Donald Rumsfeld won for his 2002 speech that went on about knowns and unknowns wasn't deserved.
Posted by steve @ 06:33 PM EST [Link]
~ REPUBLICAN BUT NOT CONSERVATIVE: Popshot Magazine has an interesting essay up today about the so-called "South Park Republicans" that have been discussed by people like Jonah Goldberg. The essay argues that programs like South Park may be anti-liberal but they aren't conservative. What they may be are Republicans.
More than a few people are uncomfortable with the “conservative” label. Everyone knows what the word means, no matter how it’s dressed up politically – “opposed to change; desiring the preservation of the existing order of things; moderate; cautious…” (Webster’s). It is, decidedly, not cool.
Until 9/11, the Libertarians had a lock on those who knew they weren’t conservative but weren’t left-liberals. Two things happened following 9/11 regarding this issue. One, young people who were just going through the motions as “conservatives” but who had never contributed to the face of the Republican Party suddenly energized, jumped into view, and changed the face of the party to be younger, hipper and a little rough around the edges. Two, many former Libertarians jumped ship following the LP’s limp response to terrorism.
The result was an influx of “liberal” minds to the Republican side of the debate. The great success of weblogging shows off this trend in sharp detail. One need look no further than the “Blogfather,” Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com, for evidence. Reynolds openly discusses pre-marital sex, rock ‘n’ roll, drug use and other non-conservative subjects while maintaining a resolute support of the war in Iraq. Time was when no one spoke favorably on all these topics except P.J. O’Rourke.
Indeed, O’Rourke is the spiritual godfather of the “South Park Republicans.” His own journey into the heart and mind of a man who was “Republican, not conservative” was a collection of pieces titled, Republican Party Reptile.
Read it here.
Posted by steve @ 03:44 PM EST [Link]
~ CAPITALISM HURTING NORTH KOREA...NOT BRUTAL DICTATORSHIP: (Via The Corner) According to the U.N., North Korea is exacerbating its problems by fooling around with capitalism.
The reforms were launched July 1, 2002, when Pyongyang boosted pay and loosened price controls - seen as significant moves because they included elements of a market-based economy in one of the world's most tightly controlled countries.
But the reforms have a darker side, said [Masood] Hyder, who arrived in the isolated country a month after they began.
"Those industries, those factories that are no longer capable of standing on their own feet have had to cut back, have had to redeploy staff," he said, with managers under increased pressure to match supply with demand and trim expenses.
As a result, more workers are having their pay cut or hours slashed, making it harder to buy food as overall prices see a general increase, Hyder said.
Perhaps someone has to teach Mr. Hyder what capitalism really is. Your first lesson sir is that capitalism cannot exist in tyrannies. Capitalism rests upon the principle that people are free to deal with each other, something that cannot occur in a Stalinist-Communist state. You can call it (and what's happening in China) capitalism until the cows come home but the fact is that you cannot graft freedom onto tyranny and expect it to survive. The best you get is some hybrid that is neither capitalism or total tyranny.
Ah, but these "nuances" are lost on anyone who works for the United Nations.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 03:37 PM EST [Link]
~ ANOTHER GUN CONTROL PROGRAM FAILURE -- the continuing saga of the Canadian Gun Registry
Not only is the program an expensive failure, the bureaucrats that run it are borderline criminal in the waste, fraud, and abuse category. A half-million dollars spent on hospitality and $13-million on travel are expensive boondoggles that the agency has tried to cover up. Why in the world does a gun registry agency need to spend a half million on "hospitality"? Are they wining and dining the Brady gun-control bunch?
The anti-gun nuts disarmed Britain and Australia with disastrous results. And Canada seems hell bent for leather to disarm its law-abiding citizens to make life easier for criminal predators.
The story is in the National Post.
More guns, less crime.
cb
Posted by clbloomer @ 03:28 PM EST [Link]
~ DEROY MURDOCK TO DISCUSS REPARATIONS ON NIGHTLINE: "Deroy Murdock, a member of the national advisory council of the black leadership network Project 21, will discuss proposals to pay reparations to the descendents of slaves on an ABC News "Nightline" segment scheduled to air at 11:30 eastern time on Wednesday, December 3. Murdock and other Project 21 members have spoken against the idea of paying such reparations.
"In a past commentary on reparations, Murdock wrote, "While challenges remain - especially for low-income, poorly educated blacks - from sea to shining sea, millions of blacks have overcome or are working hard to do so. Sadly, so-called 'black leaders' clam up about this while praying that their reparations gravy train somehow will steam ahead."
"Murdock, in addition to his work with Project 21, is a columnist with the Scripps-Howard News Service, a contributing editor to National Review Online and a Senior Fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Project 21 maintains the "Slavery Reparations Resource Center" online at http://www.nationalcenter.org/Reparations.html where people can find diverse commentary, news, litigation and links regarding the reparations issue."
Posted by steve @ 04:05 AM EST [Link]
~ WE DIDN'T GET ONE BLOODY MENTION: Oh well. John Hawkins has just unveiled the winners of the 2003 Blog Awards. A bunch of different categories including Most Overrated, Best Group Blog and Best Looking Blog. Congrats to all the winners...well, except for the ones who "won" Most Annoying.
See the list here.
Posted by steve @ 03:59 AM EST [Link]
~ NOT A SURPRISE: (Via reader D. Miller) WorldNetDaily reported yesterday that a summit next week in Geneva will likely see several nations push for a U.N. regulated Internet by 2005.
Developing nations – including China, Syria and Vietnam – are pushing for the U.N. or one of its agencies to regulate the Internet, perhaps as soon as 2005. Diplomats from more than 60 countries plan to take up the issue at the U.N. World Information Summit in Geneva beginning next Wednesday.
At issue are the operations currently run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, a California group that assigns Internet protocol addresses and oversees major domains, including .com, .net and .org. The group also helps set technical rules for how the Internet operates. Developing nations said their interests would be better served if the Internet were managed by an intergovernmental group, such as the United Nations or one of its arms.
The U.S., represented at the summit by Ambassador David Gross, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy, is opposing the plan.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:05 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, December 2, 2003 NO IMPROVEMENT LIKELY FOR SCHIAVO: An independent guardian appointed for Terry Schiavo reported to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush today that she is in a persistent vegetative state with no likelihood of improvement.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 11:57 PM EST [Link]
~ I THOUGHT RUMMY DID WHAT HE WANTED: The New York Sun reported today that the Pentagon's new rules have effectively ended meetings with opponents of the theocracy in Iran.
Some advocates of a hard line against Iran say that the new restrictions have meant less encouragement from America for those seeking to spread freedom and democracy in Iran. They also voice concern that the rules have prevented America from getting valuable information about Iran’s support for terrorism and its effort to build a nuclear bomb.
The restrictions on Pentagon meetings have also given the State Department, which has pushed to engage Iran, an upper hand in the interagency debate over policy toward the Islamic Republic.
Despite President Bush’s decision to include Iran in the “axis of evil” in his 2002 State of the Union address and his public statements of support for freedom there, the mullahs who run Iran have seen little follow through from his administration in terms of actual support for indigenous democrats.
The Iranian government has been courted as a partner in rebuilding neighboring Iraq, showing up at an international conference of donors in Madrid in October and signing a series of diplomatic agreements with the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council in November.
Why do you damned Americans make the same mistakes every damned time? Every time a group of people look for help you lapse into the U.S. State Department mandated bureaucratic mindset designed to keep the rotten peace instead of sending words of encouragement to pro-American dissidents. I'd hang every bloody person at State...
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:39 PM EST [Link]
~ NO KYOTO FOR RUSSIA: Another prediction proved right! A top official in the Kremlin announced today that Russia would not ratify the Kyoto Accord because it would harm the Russian economy.
That pretty well puts the boot on the throat of the treaty but of course we in Canada still have to live with it. Regardless of whether it comes into force, Canada has announced that it will abide by the treaty's mandates.
Of course, this could all just be politics. Oh, those Russians!
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:12 PM EST [Link]
~ FINALLY...DEMOGRAPHICS THAT HELP CONSERVATIVES: Interesting piece in the New York Times today explaining how shifts in population will help George W. Bush in 2004.
Beyond issues like Iraq and the economy is one political reality that both the White House and Democrats say is already shaping next year's presidential race: If President Bush carries the same states in 2004 that he won in 2000, he will win seven more electoral votes.
That change, a result of a population shift to Republican-friendly states in the South and West in the last several years, means the Republicans have a slight margin of error in 2004 while the Democrats will have to scramble just to pull even.In 2000, after Florida's 25 electoral votes were awarded to Mr. Bush, he won the presidency with 271 — 5 more than Al Gore's 266. Since then 18 states have either won or lost electoral votes, with 7 states that Mr. Bush won last time gaining a total of 11 electoral votes: Florida picked up 2, as did Texas, Georgia and Arizona. North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado each gained 1.
The gain of 11 electoral votes was offset by a loss of 4 from four other Bush states, leaving Mr. Bush with a net gain of 7. The Democrats lost eight electoral votes in six states that went for Mr. Gore and gained one in another, for their net loss of seven.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 04:05 PM EST [Link]
~ THERE IS NO CHOICE WHEN THE CHOICE IS US OR THEM: Steven Den Beste received an email from a bloke in Iran who took umbrage at an earlier post where SDB posited what would happen if Muslim fanatics escalated the war to do serious damage against the United States. The chap from Tehran stated that SDB's notions were akin to planning a final solution.
Steve's response?
I know my nation. I know my people. We don't want to destroy you all. But if you (I mean "Muslims") place us in a position where only you or us can survive, it's going to be us, and you'll all be dead. We can do that; we've had that capability for a very long time. We don't want to, but we will if we must.
But it would be better, for you and for us, if it did not come to that.
Read on. Make sure to read the responses he links to as well.
Posted by steve @ 02:02 AM EST [Link]
~ SURE BUT YOU GUYS APOLOGIZE FOR THE NANKING MASSACRE, COMFORT GIRLS, THE MASS MURDER OF POWs AND CIVILIAN POPULATIONS: And I could go on. Hiroshima survivors are demanding that the Smithsonian Institution to include pictures and figures concerning the number of deaths caused by the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the A-bomb in Hiroshima.
This from a nation that refuses to acknowledge, apologize for and compensate the victims of hundreds of Japanese actions during World War II. To this day, Japanese school children are not taught about most of the horrific things that Japan did during the war. During the Nanking Massacre alone it's believed that as many as 100 000 civilians were murdered in one month, more than the death toll at Nagasaki, with countless other rapes and assaults.
Read on.
Posted by steve @ 01:34 AM EST [Link]
~ BUSH HATING: WORSE THAN USUAL?: Is the hatred being shown towards Dubya worse than what presidents usually face? Some say yes, some say no.
on.
Posted by steve @ 01:08 AM EST [Link]
~ MONDAY NIGHT QUARTERBACK: So much for being on a roll. It started out bad Thursday with losses by Green Bay and Dallas and it only got worse on Sunday with the New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers losing. To cap it off, picking Tennessee to win by 9 turned out to be a bad move with a surprising win by the New York Jets tonight. All I can say is ouch. A .500 weekend will bring my season average down considerably. At this rate I'm going to look like Tampa Bay -- I started out strong but slipped near the end.
So what does New England's win over Indianapolis mean? Well, in my humble opinion the Colts are still a power but the win by the Patriots reestablishes them after some doubt. I know that's an odd thing to say about a team that went into the game 9-2 but for some reason -- and I picked them to win nearly every week -- I just didn't get the sense that they were for real. Well at 10-2 and a solid lead in the AFC East I can't diss them anymore.
And the Buccaners? Well, I hope they enjoy watching the playoffs on TV.
Week 1: 9 of 15 (Thursday night game not counted)
Week 2: 13 of 15
Week 3: 10 of 15
Week 4: 10 of 15
Week 5: 11 of 14
Week 6: 11 of 14
Week 7: 8 of 14
Week 8: 10 of 14
Week 9: 7 of 14
Week 10: 9 of 14
Week 11: 12 of 16
Week 12: 12 of 16
Week 13: 8 of 16Season %: 67.7 (-1.6%)
In honor of Marc Bulger's continuing excellance, I offer Rams cheerleader Amy, a second year veteran of the squad. Amy wants to be a journalist -- which would immediately improve the profession at least in the looks department -- and she credits Oprah Winfrey with being a major influence in her life. Odd thing about Amy? She likes to dress up her dog. Hey, anyone that looks like Amy can do what she wants. You can also see her on the cover of the cheerleader calender.
Posted by steve @ 01:02 AM EST [Link]
Monday, December 1, 2003 HELPING IRAQ'S CHILDREN: Iraq's schools need a lot of work and it's that nation's children who are suffering. If you'd like to send school supplies to the children of Iraq, please visit this web site.
Posted by steve @ 07:00 PM EST [Link]
~ WHY DO IRAQIS GET IT BUT MICHAEL MOORE DOESN'T?: New blog by an Iraqi named Omar demolishes the contention that the U.S. only invaded Iraq to steal its wealth. I'll let Omar's words speak for him:
Some Iraqis say that Iraq is a wealthy country and that America came here to steal our fortune, and I ask them what f***ing fortune? Saddam has driven Iraq bankrupt and even worse, Iraq is now drowning in debts.
Iraq is a (potentially rich) country, that's true. Iraq was once rich, but right now it's a poor country, and in order to make Iraq a rich country once again we need researches, experience, investments and years of hard work. This can not be done by the Iraqis alone, we need help, and we're getting that help.
Saddam wasted most of our fortune on his intelligence and security agencies and his plans to get WMD's and the rest was transferred to the secret accounts of his and his family.
Read on. Welcome to the blogosphere Omar and greetings from your friends in Canada!
Posted by steve @ 06:48 PM EST [Link]
~ JIM ANTLE WILL BE PLEASED: It appears that sometime this week, George W. Bush will drop steel tariffs.
European countries had vowed to respond to the tariffs, which were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization, by imposing sanctions on up to $2.2 billion in exports from the United States, beginning as soon as Dec. 15. Japan issued a similar threat Wednesday. The sources said Bush's aides concluded they could not run the risk that the European Union would carry out its threat to impose sanctions on orange juice and other citrus products from Florida, motorcycles, farm machinery, textiles, shoes, and other products.
Bush advisers said they were aware the reversal could produce a backlash against him in several steel-producing states of the Rust Belt -- including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. That arc of states has been hit severely by losses in manufacturing jobs and will be among the most closely contested in his reelection race.
The sources said that Bush's aides agonized over the options to present to the president and that they considered it one of the diciest political calculations of this term. A source involved in the negotiations said White House aides looked for some step short of a full repeal that would satisfy the European Union but concluded that it was "technically possible but practically impossible."
ESR's own Jim Antle argued back in March 2002 that raising the tariffs in the first place was a bad idea.
Posted by steve @ 02:52 PM EST [Link]
~ FORGET REFORM: Iranian student Koorosh Afshar says that reforming Iranian's political system is pointless. Only total change will save that country from the mullahs. Read on.
Posted by steve @ 02:48 PM EST [Link]
~ IT'S A WAR STUPID: You would think by now that everyone realizes that there is a war in Iraq: Us vs. Them. Good Guys vs. Bad Guys. Freedom vs. Tyranny. You know, that kind of stuff. Michael Ledeen argues that there are people in prominent positions who believe we can "manage" Iraq instead of defeating our enemies.
It's not just our diplomats who do not believe we are in a real war. The Japanese victims of terrorists in Iraq on Saturday were headed for a meeting in Tikrit, to evaluate whether or not the power station there was a worthy recipient of aid. But since the Japanese refuse to acknowledge that they are participating in a war effort, they weren't particularly careful about security, so their car was not armored, they had no weapons with them, and so they were easy prey.
Add them to the growing list of scores of people who have died in Iraq because they assumed that the terrorists wouldn't confuse them with the evil Americans. This little conceit led to such folly as U.N. officers in Baghdad insisting that the Americans remove cement blocks from the approach to their offices, the Red Cross declining protection, and so on. It reminds me of a terrible story some years ago, about a very nice girl from southern California who went to South Africa to help the victims of apartheid. She, too, assumed that she would be protected by her innate goodness, and went to the wrong township one night. Her body was flown back to America a few days later.
Her story, and the story of countless other people who confuse their feelings with reality, always reminds me of a piece of dialogue from the movie The Thin Red Line. A Japanese soldier confronts one of the Americans and tells him:
Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?
Read on.
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