Judicious Asininity

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Thu Sep 30, 2004

First reaction to the debate

I'd score it a draw

Kerry did better than I expected and concealed his lies and deception well. He had us screaming "liar" at the TV but Joe Public wouldn't know how often Kerry was being deceptive. At the end of the debate it was still not possible to determine where Kerry stood on Iraq. If it was the wrong war, why not put Saddam back in power and pull-out?

Bush was, well, Bush. A bit inarticulate, too many pauses, and he missed many chances to nail Kerry. For example, Kerry mentioned the Kerry/Edwards plan to ship nuclear fuel to Iran. Bush failed to call him on that. Bush did stay on message, though I was soon wincing every time he said "hard work".

When Kerry accused Bush of attacking the wrong enemy Bush could have responded by saying that Japan attacked the US but our first real action was against Nazi Germany (actually their Vichy French allies) which had not attacked America.

Kerry's tan must have washed off or he did get a good makeup job. Kerry supporters can take heart that their man fought the debate to a draw.

Kerry's empty rhetoric

So, we don't have Osama yet. So what?

Well, we never did get Hitler and most of his high command avoided capture or death until the very end of the war. Ditto the Jap brass (we used to call the enemy Japs and Huns back then, if we were being nice).

But Kerry wants to devote all our military resources to capturing Osama:

I would have concentrated our power and resources on defeating global terrorism and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. I would have tightened the noose and continued to pressure and isolate Saddam Hussein – who was weak and getting weaker -- so that he would pose no threat to the region or America.

But if Osama is still alive, he is scurrying from safe house to cave and back again, one step ahead of US Special Forces, the Pakistani army and the lure of a reward. He doesn't pose nearly the threat of currently active and relatively unknown terrorists.

About that noose around Saddam, Mr. Kerry. How would you have maintained the sanctions regime in the face of French and Russian efforts to lift sanctions? How would you have kept US forces poised on Iraq's border for another year, or two? What would you have done about the UN oil-for-fraud program that was making Saddam stronger?

Sometimes Nicholas Kristof writes good stuff

His story of rape and retribution in Pakistan reminds us of what this war is about

Read the story here. Mukhtaran Bibi represents the forces for good in the Islamic world while her rapists personify all that is evil. When Mukhtaran Bibi is recognized as a heroine across the Islamic world, the war on radical Islam will be over. It's going to take a long time.

Be careful what you wish for

Sometimes it bites you back big time, as NYT reporters are finding out

Debra Saunders asks what Plamegate has cost to date. Well, it has cost Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife any credibility, but Saunders was thinking about the cost to the tax-paying public.

As happens, Fitzgerald's office wouldn't say how much the investigation has cost or why it cares to subpoena reporters who didn't out Plame. So I will leave it to you, dear reader, to try to imagine how much money and energy has been spent on this inquisition when these resources could go toward investigating terrorists, organized crime or white-collar criminals.

In calling for the investigation into who outed Plame, the Left hoped to catch a White House official committing a felony. Wilson even fantasized about Karl Rove being led from the White House in handcuffs, as noted by Tim Noah in Slate:Did Rove Blow a Spook's Cover? a year ago:

Wilson, who was present, had this to say:
It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.
This appeared to be an unsubtle hint that Wilson knew one of the leakers to be Rove.

The tone of Noah's article reflects the credibility that Wilson had in Leftist circles. Wilson had, after all, been on the Op-ed page of the NYT and had undermined Bush's credibility on the issue of Saddam seeking uranium. The Left smelled blood and bayed for an investigation. Saunders, again:

Howls of outrage from the left echoed. It was a felony to leak Plame's name, Bush-haters panted. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the FBI to probe the matter as the Nation's Washington editor David Corn asked, "So where is the investigation?"

The Left got its investigation and it is still meandering along.

But, along the way, the sacred presumption that reporters did not have to reveal their sources, got a lot less sacred, especially when national security is involved. So we now learn that two NYT reporters are being investigated because one of them may have tipped off an Islamic charity that it was about to be raided. The WPO has the story.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is also acting as a special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe, informed the Times by letter last week that his office has subpoenaed telephone company records. The move is part of an effort to determine whether anyone in the government told Times reporters of planned federal asset seizures in December 2001 at the offices of an Islamic charity suspected of providing funding to al Qaeda, according to several sources familiar with the case.

The FBI believes that a call from a reporter to a representative of the charity, the Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation, may have led to the destruction of documents there the night before the government's raid, according to findings by the Sept. 11 commission.

When Fitzgerald has finished with those probes, maybe he should go after all those leakers in the CIA, Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon who are doing all they can to undermine their boss, the Commander-in-Chief.

Nuance on Parade

When Spin Becomes a Necessity

Victor Davis Hanson has a few questions for John Kerry. Here's one:

How might you explain the apparent abrupt change in policy of Libya; the unexpected removal of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb; and the about-face in Saudi Arabia - and what precise plans do you have to induce similar such positive changes in attitude in Iran, Lebanon and Syria?

That one ought to bring out the best of Kerry's nuance.
Head on over for the other 2 questions.

Wed Sep 29, 2004

When appearances count the most

Kerry is looking his worst

Just saw him on Fox TV -- a sorry sight -- oddly tanned -- tired -- and sounding hoarse. His campaign is on the line tomorrow night and he doesn't look even close to ready. Shades of Nixon's five o'clock shadow have come back to haunt the gaunt Mr. Kerry. He better pray the make-up people can perform miracles. Otherwise, the MSM will spend more time on how badly he looks than on his debating performance. I almost feel sorry for him.

Bush looked good and performed well on O'Reilly. The Kerry camp can't be looking forward to the first debate.

Yaser Esam Hamdi to go free

But not in the USA

Yaser Esam Hamdi happened to be born in the US although he is in all other respects a Saudi Arabian. He's going to be released, under this agreement (via Newsweek):

It will result in Hamdi being flown back to Saudi Arabia on a U.S. military aircraft without ever being charged with any terror-related activity—a symbolic victory for critics who have long pointed to the case as a prime example of what they see as the Bush administration's overreaching in combating the terrorist threat.

Still, Justice Department officials said today the agreement contains important provisions to protect U.S. interests, including requirements that Hamdi renounce his U.S. citizenship, agree not to return to the United States and consent not to travel to an extensive list of countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or Syria, where he could be presumably be recruited for terrorist activity. Hamdi is also supposed to keep Saudi authorities notified of his whereabouts—a requirement that even government officials say will do little, if anything, to restrict his movements in the country.

But could this be a case of "out of the frying pan into the fire"? Since Al Qaeda started mounting terrorist attacks inside Saudi Arabia, it has become rather more serious about the war on terror. When Hamdi is delivered to Saudi Arabia, I suspect he may find soon himself in custody again without the protections that US citizenship grants. Here's hoping, because we've already seen that terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay sometimes go right back to their bad, old ways.

As the war against terrorism progresses and countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia become strong allies, then the need for the US to detain their nationals decreases. Why hold someone at Gitmo when they can enjoy the tender mercies of a security service unconstrained by SCOTUS, ACLU, US lawyers and the NYT?

Tue Sep 28, 2004

Let's get some perspective around here

Casualties in Iraq are bad but they aren't too good on the domestic front, either

We often hear that Iraq is about the size of California. The populations aren't that different either, with Iraq at 23 million and California at 35 million.

Over the last ten years the Californian homicide rate has averaged 2,496 per year. Many of those were killed in gang-related violence. In some areas of L.A. gang violence has gotten so bad that, according to this report from the The Los Angeles Daily News,

Terror reigns in the many neighborhoods of Los Angeles overrun by gangs. From the "shooting gallery" in parts of North Hills to the killing fields of South Los Angeles, law-abiding residents live in fear behind steel gates and bars, their children afraid to play outside. It is the poor communities, many of them minority neighborhoods, whose residents are struggling hardest to move into the middle class, that pay the highest price for the epidemic of gang violence in Southern California.

So, is that description very much different from what we are reading about Fallujah or Sadr city?

We don't extrapolate from the worst areas of Los Angeles to the rest of California or the rest of the US. We know that it would be great distortion of reality to assume that the average US citizen lives in as much fear as the people stuck in gang-infested rat-holes like South Los Angeles. We shouldn't be doing it in Iraq, either. Yet, the MSM only reports on the trouble spots in Iraq and give the impression that what they report is representative of the country as a whole.

Chicago Boyz maps the violence in Iraq for most of September by province.

I mapped all 58 U.S. combat fatalities for the month of September to date using data made available at GlobalSecurity.org. The map color codes the number of U.S. fatalities resulting from enemy action in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. Only four of the provinces had any U.S. fatalities. 14 of the provinces had zero fatalities. (The British down in Basra had zero fatalities from combat in September).

Lo and behold, most of the country is peaceful with zero coalition casualties. The hot spots stand out, just as certain areas of California would stand out if you mapped homicides by county.

Jihad or Fitna?

Islamists are Losing, Buck Up, and Keep the Pressure On

David Ignatius has some words on the 'quagmire' of the war on terror:

Looking at the gruesome images of beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq, it's easy to think that the Islamic holy warriors are winning. But a new book by a distinguished French Arabist named Gilles Kepel argues the opposite case. For all the mayhem the jihadists have caused, he contends, their movement is failing.

Rather than waging a successful jihad against the West, the followers of Osama bin Laden have created chaos and destruction in the house of Islam. This internal crisis is known in Arabic as fitna: "It has an opposite and negative connotation from jihad," explains Kepel. "It signifies sedition, war in the heart of Islam, a centrifugal force that threatens the faithful with community fragmentation, disintegration and ruin."

Read it all.

Modern Barbarity versus the Overcivilized

Medieval Response Required for Survival Against Barbarians

Dale Franks has an excellent post over at QandO that is based on this article by John O'Sullivan dealing with the 'over civilized':

But as Bacon pointed out: "Revenge is a kind of wild justice." It will inevitably -- and arguably rightly -- become the resort of decent people when law and government fail to deliver justice. Post-modern governments fail in just that way. Humanitarian bodies such as Amnesty International are even worse: They practice a sort of unilateral civil libertarianism that holds governments to account for the smallest infraction of civil liberty but treats terrorism as a natural disaster. Transnational bodies like the U.N. and the EU are worse -- they seek to take the weapons of war and capital punishment from us in our struggles against terrorism, slavery, piracy and hostage-taking and to force us to rely instead on their own paper resolutions and elevated principles.

All these responses -- from the critical reactions to "Man on Fire" to the E.U.’s prohibition of capital punishment -- are overcivilized. That sounds almost like a compliment, as if it meant more civilized. In fact, to be overcivilized is to be less civilized because genuine civilization includes a robust willingness to enforce its order and truths on anarchy, violence, murder and superstition.

Dale's comments on O'Sullivan's article are equally worth reading. Head on over and read both. Though most people with common sense understand the nature of our enemies requires us to refuse to be bound by the rules of the overcivilized people, a refresher course on reality seems in order. Then, there are those who strive to rule by shackling the civilized with suicidal overcivilized ideas that are doomed against people who will do anything to win. Thus there is a great need to remind some that nice guys finish last when facing a deadly serious, unprincipled, and merciless enemy. Here it is from Dale Franks:

Today’s overcivilization, however, is even more dangerous than the type that leveled Rome. Today, the overcivilized portion of the citizenry shies away from any defense of civilization at all. They worry that our use of force will be illegal unless we can get the UN to sign on. They quail at the thought of quagmires. They deride the goal of democratization as arrogance. They refuse to "judge" other cultures for fear of seeming bigoted. Nor will they ever attempt to assert the superiority of our civilization, despite the fact that it eliminated chattel slavery throughout the world, healed a multitude of diseases, and put men on the moon. No doubt such moral vanity makes the overcivilized think well of themselves.

But the barbarians regard such moral preening with smiles as keen as the blade of a dagger.

O'Sullivan puts it well in his finishing sentence:

As long as we remain overcivilized, anarchy, violence, murder and superstition will continue their sinister recovery -- until one day you may think you hear your own mother's voice on the network news.

Or you daughter's, son's, wife's, husband's, friend's voice begging for mercy at the hands of the merciless. The voice may even end up being your own.

Go......read all.

Mon Sep 27, 2004

Syria Getting It?

Bush's 'Miserable Failure' Keeps Changing Hearts and Minds

After linking this story that says the Syrian government has ordered the offices of Palestinian organizations operating in its territory closed, Alpha Patriot asks if anyone can see a pattern in recent events in Syria. For instance, these:

Just last week, Syrian intelligence joined with Italian and Lebanese authorities in the arrest of ten members of an al-Qaeda-linked group.

There has been movement on the effort to get Syria to withdraw from Lebanon.

Syria recently announced that it would eliminate the constitutional prohibition against recognizing Israel.

Pattern or not, some interesting developments have recently occurred in Syria.
Like Alpha Patriot says: "Must be some more of that failed foreign policy that Kerry keeps talking about".

Amuse your Democrat friends

Spread this link

OK, these pictures are funny. I've linked to them because I paired the last two pictures back in this post. Link via Betsy's Page

Sun Sep 26, 2004

Say What?

Desperate Daschle Digs Deep

Here's one for the 'Say What?' category:

Tens of thousands of South Dakota families will benefit from a package of middle-class tax cuts that was passed Thursday by the Senate.
“These are the tax cuts I have long championed, and they make sense for South Dakota families,” Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said in a conference call.

Huh?
I reckon Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry were right there on the front lines of tax relief with you too, Tom.
Evidently the pressure from Thune is really getting to the former senate majority leader and he has decided to mend his ways.
Either that, or, never mind, you know.

Sat Sep 25, 2004

An all volunteer military ensures Quality Control

The number one reason why the draft won't be reinstituted

#1 Because the likes of John Kerry won't be forced to sign-up to avoid it.

I just saw on CNN that Kerry is once again proving his ineptness by attacking the Rumsfeld and the military on this fake draft issue.

Ratherization in Action

Allawi Provides the Chance, MSM Declines Opportunity

Steyn points to yet another example of media Ratherization when the press had Iraq's Prime Minister front and center but failed to ask him important questions in their zeal to promote the Democratic (party) cause:

But Iraq's the No. 1 issue in American right now, and they've got the go-to guy right in front of them, and what do the blow-dried poseurs of the networks ask:

''Mr. President, John Kerry is accusing you of colossal failures of judgment in Iraq . . .''

NBC guy: ''A central theme of your campaign is that America is safer because of the invasion of Iraq. Can you understand why Americans may not believe you?''

CNN: ''Sir, I'd like you to answer Senator Kerry and other critics who accuse you of hypocrisy or opportunism . . .''

They're six feet from Iraq's head of government and they've got not a question for him. They've got no interest in Iraq except insofar as they can use the issue to depress sufficient numbers of swing voters in Florida and Ohio.

Who's living in the fantasyland here? Huge forces are at play in a world of rapid change. As the prime minister said, ''We Iraqis will stand by you, America, in a war larger than either of our nations.'' But the gentlemen of the press can barely stifle their ennui. Say what you like about the old left, but at least they were outward-looking and internationalist. This new crowd -- Democrats and media alike -- are stunted and parochial, their horizons shriveling more every day.

But what did you expect?

Meanwhile, Power Line links to this Bill Kristol piece that describes like disgraceful behavior from Kerry and his Krew. Here's a bit:
Read more »

Kerry and his advisers have behaved disgracefully this past week. That behavior is sufficient grounds for concern about his fitness to be president.
Kerry's rudeness paled beside the comment of his senior adviser, Joe Lockhart, to the Los Angeles Times: "The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips."

Is Kerry proud that his senior adviser's derisive comment about the leader of free Iraq will now be quoted by terrorists and by enemies of the United States, in Iraq and throughout the Middle East? Is the concept of a loyalty to American interests that transcends partisan politics now beyond the imagination of the Kerry campaign?

John Kerry has decided to pursue a scorched-earth strategy in this campaign. He is prepared to insult allies, hearten enemies, and denigrate efforts to succeed in Iraq. His behavior is deeply irresponsible--and not even in his own best interest.

There is some chance, after all, that John Kerry will be president in four months. If so, what kind of situation will he have created for himself? France will smile on him, but provide no troops. Those allies that have provided troops, from Britain and Poland and Australia and Japan and elsewhere, will likely recall how Kerry sneered at them, calling them "the coerced and the bribed." The leader of the government in Iraq, upon whom the success of John Kerry's Iraq policy will depend, will have been weakened before his enemies and ours--and will also remember the insult. Is this really how Kerry wants to go down in history: Willing to say anything to try to get elected, no matter what the damage to the people of Iraq, to American interests, and even to himself?

No surprise here either. Democrats in general have been doing everything in their power to promote defeat on a variety of fronts including the economy, stock market, and war on terror. This is just a continuation of the pattern that seems to indicate a belief that Bush's failures are somehow remote from the general public and will have no effect on U.S. citizens. Either that, or they simply do not care what price Americans have to pay for defeat. Either way, disgraceful.

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Fri Sep 24, 2004

More reason not to vote for John Kerry

Kerry thinks poverty causes terrorism

According to Jim Miller:

John Kerry Believes, or at least says he believes, in the Patty Murray theory of terrorism, that its roots are in poverty, disease, and hunger. This is remarkable, considering the evidence against it. Like Senator Murray, Kerry ignores the facts about the best known terrorists; Osama bin Laden and Mohamed Atta may have had problems, but poverty, disease, and hunger were not among them.
...
For Kerry to believe in the Patty Murray theory of terrorism at this date shows that he has not been paying attention to the evidence, or that he is impervious to it, or that he does not have the mental capacity to understand it, or some combination of the three. I am inclined to think that the second is the main reason, that Kerry simply will not accept evidence that does not fit into his rather narrow world view. But I can no longer dismiss the third.

There is another explanation that combines elements of the second and third reasons that Jim Miller lists. That is that Kerry is basically incompetent at his profession of politician but unaware of his shortcomings. This phenomenon is described by this paper Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments by Justin Kruger and David Dunning in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The abstract starts:

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability.

The paper goes a long way towards explaining why Kerry is running such a bad campaign. Having the initials JFK, hailing from Massachusetts, and being a naval war-hero (at least in his own imagination) isn't quite enough to make up for basic incompetence at politicking.

A less than useful trade-off in the blogosphere

One blog restarts and another goes quiet

About the time that Andrew Sullivan resumed blogging after his month-long hiatus, Steven den Beste stopped blogging. There's no connection between the two events, but I'd much rather Sullivan extended his hiatus until after the election, and Steven den Beste started blogging again. I still click on USS Clueless, hoping against hope to read something new, and I haven't broken my old habit of clicking on Andrew Sullivan. Neither click satisfies any more.

Thu Sep 23, 2004

Evading the Draft.....Truth

Dems Fail to Mention One Important Fact

There has been an email making the rounds that says Bush and Company are going to reinstitute the draft in 2005 should Republicans win the election. This email further says that secret legislation is pending in Congress to enact the evil plan. But...there seems to be a problem with these allegations, it's called the truth. Facts indicate that Bush, Rumsfeld, and the Congressional Republican leadership oppose the draft. Despite these inconvenient facts, Kerry seems to be taking a page from Dan Rather's playbook and abetting the blatant lies spread by the email:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, citing the war in Iraq and other trouble spots in the world, raised the possibility Wednesday that a military draft could be reinstated if voters re-elect President Bush.

Meanwhile, facts easily disprove such bald face lies, yet Kerry insists on following Rather's script. Bothersome facts, like this one, apparently do not matter if the greater good of Kerry and his Democratic party are served:

..... there is a bill pending that would restart the draft. But the Bush administration opposes it, as do Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the leadership of both the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress. Everyone remotely in a position to know is quite sure that the bill is going nowhere.

"I don't know anyone in the executive branch of the government who believes that it would be appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in April.

The bill's primary sponsor is Rep. Charles Rangel, a liberal Democrat from New York who represents Harlem.

Here's a few more pertinent facts about that bill:
Read more »

H.R.163
Title: To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] (introduced 1/7/2003) Cosponsors (14)
Related Bills: S.89
Latest Major Action: 2/3/2003 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Executive Comment Requested from DOD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COSPONSORS(14), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)
Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 1/7/2003 Rep Brown, Corrine [FL-3] - 1/28/2003
Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] - 5/19/2004 Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 1/28/2003
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] - 1/7/2003 Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [MD-7] - 1/28/2003
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23] - 1/28/2003 Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] - 7/21/2004
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 1/28/2003 Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] - 1/7/2003
Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] - 1/7/2003 Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 1/28/2003
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] - 1/7/2003 Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12] - 1/28/2003
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] - 1/28/2003(withdrawn - 6/21/2004)

Surely, given the list of all-star sponsors of this 'Bush bill', even Kerry would have the sense to avoid such as obvious deception. But, alas, it doesn't seem so:

Answering a question about the draft that had been posed at a forum with voters, Kerry said: "If George Bush were to be re-elected, given the way he has gone about this war and given his avoidance of responsibility in North Korea and Iran and other places, is it possible? I can't tell you."

Well Senator, if you 'can't tell' us, what can you tell us? Perhaps you could begin with the list of sponsors of the unpopular bill that appears to be dying in committee even as we speak.

Powerline and Michelle Malkin have more on this new scare tactic. Suffice it to say Kerry and the Democrats have a lot of gall to accuse anyone of using dirty tricks, lies, innuendo......well, all that and more. In fact, gall is not quite strong enough to express the depths that liberals have sunk to in their desperate quest for power at all costs. Head on over for the rest of the sordid story. Then, give the Democrats their just reward at the polls.

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Kerry's New Iraq Policy

It's back to Vietnam again - cut and run

For Kerry, it's all about Vietnam. He came to national prominence for his leading role in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and his greatest victory came when the US withdrew from Vietnam. He was so famous back then that Gary Trudeau lampooned him in a cartoon (via Powerline) that still resonates today. Now that he's under pressure for flip-flopping on Iraq, he's formulated yet another Iraq policy. It's all about bringing the troops home within four years. One supposes he chose four years instead of an earlier date so it wouldn't appear that his policy is to cut and run, but that's what it is. It worked for him when he came back from Vietnam to lead the VVAW to victory, so he imagines it'll work for him again.

What seems to be missing from anything Kerry says on Iraq is a strategic vision. It's all about tactics and he can't seem to get beyond that. Bush says the root cause of terrorism is the lack of freedom in the Middle East and the solution is to free Arab nations from secular and Islamic tyrants. Iraq had the worst tyrant and a record of supporting terrorists so that was the obvious place to start; better to take out Saddam now than wait until his budding relationship with Al Qaeda was in full bloom, along with his semi-dormant WMD programs. You can disagree with the Bush Doctrine but at least you know that he has a strategic vision (as does Al Qaeda, for that matter). With Kerry, all we hear is carping criticism that reeks of opportunism.

Wed Sep 22, 2004

Kerry Campaign's New Strategy

Secret Weapon Unveiled

We all knew something was up. The Kerry campaign has recently, and before, sacked, canned, replaced, and/or set straight the brains behind the dream. With such drastic changes going on it was just a matter of time before some kind of new and effective strategy emerged. Well, the wait is over, the new Kerry strategy is here:

Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards will stand in Thursday for John Kerry in two Iowa appearances.

Laryngitis forced Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, to skip a town-hall style event in Davenport and rally in Cedar Rapids, campaign aides said.

Aides said Kerry will be resting his voice for a debate next week with President Bush.

Uh huh. Not so sure about Opie the Lost being the headliner.......
but hey, based on Kerry's track record when he is talking, this has to be an improvement.
Karl Rove must be green with envy.

Border Security??

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Here's a clue for our representatives in DC:

Think they will get it? Probably not, so here's another clue: Think border security.

Kindly note the barbed wire, the fence itself, and the surveillance equipment. Improvements on that idea might include motion detectors, infrared sensors, mines, remote control gun turrets, and maybe even a minefield or two. Combine those deterrents with patrols from armed, unmanned aircraft as well as actual border guards, and you know what?? It might actually work. At worst, it would put a serious dent in illegal border crossings. So you want better control of our borders?? Where there's a will, there's a way.

Such an idea has already had a trial run. Take a look at the results.
Given the apparent success of this small project it would seem that our leaders would get the idea, that hey, border security is within our reach. Don't tell me that the most powerful and ingenious country in the world cannot stop illegal border crossings, or at least put a very serious damper on it. So, what are you DCers waiting for? Osama and his Jihad Army to traipse on in?

African's Worse Off Now

Colonial Rulers Did a Better Job

Here's one for the 'no B.S.' category:

The average African is worse off now than during the colonial era, the brother of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said.
Moeletsi Mbeki accused African elites of stealing money and keeping it abroad, while colonial rulers planted crops and built roads and cities.

"This is one of the depressing features of Africa," he said.

Hmmm.. but.....I can hear it already....Africans are worse off BECAUSE OF COLONIALISM.
Yeah right. Here's another little bit of info about the dark continent:

In July, a United Nations report said that Africa was the only continent where poverty had increased in the past 20 years.

Pitiful. At least there is one Cosby-like voice in Africa willing to tell it like it is. In the meantime though, the continent continues the downward slide.

Not "Fake but True", but "Fake and False"

Time to remove the other prop from 60 Minutes' DNC Advertisement

The Burkett memos have been acknowledged as fakes by every rational person on both sides. Only the OJ jury is still holding out on that.

But the other prop was the claim that Bush got into the Texas National Guard through special favors. That line has been promoted by that most honest of brokers, Ben Barnes, a big-time Kerry contributor and disgraced former Lt. Governor of Texas. According to Blithering Monkey:

In the Sept. 8 60 Minutes report, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes — a Democrat — claimed that, at the behest of a friend of the Bush family, he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the Guard.

Barnes and company trot that smear each time GWB stands for office and it gets debunked each time. The latest debunker, flushed out because he was named in one the forged memos, is Walter Staudt. He was "brigadier general of Bush's unit in Texas...[and]... interviewed Bush for the Guard position" according to this ABC report. He said:

"I never pressured anybody about George Bush because I had no reason to," Staudt told ABC News in his first interview since the documents were made public.
...
"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard," Staudt said, adding, "I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them."
...
During his time in charge of the unit, Staudt decided whether to accept those who applied for pilot training. He recalled Bush as a standout candidate.

"He was highly qualified," he said. "He passed all the scrutiny and tests he was given."

Staudt said he never tried to influence Killian or other Guardsmen, and added that he never came under any pressure himself to accept Bush. "No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard," he said. "It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."
...
When he interviewed for the job, Bush was eager to join the pilot program, which Staudt said often was a hard sell. "I asked him, 'Why do you want to be a fighter pilot?' " Staudt recalled. "He said, 'Because my daddy was one.' He was a well-educated, bright-eyed young man, just the kind of guy we were looking for."

He added that Bush more than met the requirements for pilot training. "He presented himself well. I'd say he was in the upper 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever we ever talked to about going to pilot training. We were pretty particular because when he came back [from training], we had to fly with him."

One might have hoped that a news organization, such as CBS, with its vast resources and highly talented reporters, might have balanced Barnes partisan lies by interviewing Staudt. But I forgot, CBS is an unofficial Democrat 527.

Was the 60 Minutes program linked to the Kerry Campaign? Let me count the ways:

Ben Barnes was John Kerry's third best fund raiser for the period 1999 - 2003 ($466,250)
The Kerry website lists Barnes as a Vice Chair for his fundraising
A Free Republic poster notes that "According to the Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Barnes is one of the "gatekeepers and endorsers for Texas appointees and job-seekers" in a potential Kerry administration."
Barnes Considers John Kerry Close Personal Friend. "Barnes, a government consultant with offices in Austin, Chicago and Washington, said: 'I'm just an enthusiastic participant' who considers as personal friends Corzine, Daschle and Kerry, whom he got to know during summer vacations in Nantucket." (W. Gardner Selby, "Texas' Last 'Old Lion' Still On Prowl For Funds," San Antonio Express-Texas, 7/30/04)
Yet more Barnes/Kerry connections documented by the RNC

Someone needs to ask Mr. Rather why his key witness was so closely linked to the Kerry campaign and why he failed to disclose that information.

Tue Sep 21, 2004

Doom Mongers Wrong Again

But They Continue to Undermine the Will to Win

Michael Totten points out this article that concludes that the Intifada is over and Israel has won the war. The most telling quote among many is this:

At every phase of Israel's counteroffensive, skeptics have worried that attempts to suppress terrorism would only encourage more of it.

Totten adds his similar thoughts:

The doom-mongers were wrong. Period. Just as they were wrong when they predicted disaster in Afghanistan. Just as they were wrong when they predicted disaster in Iraq the first time around. Just as they were wrong when they (although it was mostly Republicans this time) predicted disaster in Kosovo.
Those who keep insisting we or one of our democratic allies will actually lose a war have been wrong for a third of a century now. I am thirty four years old. The last time the doom-mongers were right I was three. They have been consistently wrong throughout my entire living memory.

While the doom mongers may eventually get one right, this simple fact will remain: We will lose if we fail to fight to win.
Head on over and read the entire article as well as Michael Totten's take on it. Then, keep it in mind as we continue this war to stifle global terrorism and its puppetmasters who pull the strings from their perceived safety behind the wall of national sovereignty.

Kerry has more incoming to deal with

The new Swiftvets ad hits Kerry where it really hurts

After noting that Kerry met with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese before Jane Fonda, it then notes that Jane Fonda had apologized to the Vietnam vets while John Kerry still had not apologized. That puts Kerry to the left of the much loathed Jane Fonda. That's not a nice place to be for a pretender to the position of Commander-in-Chief.

Better yet, the Swiftvets have much more money for their next round of ads.

Burkett is looking more and more like the forger

Burkett was ARMY national guard

A contributor at Blackfive makes two great points:

... have you noticed that all the media try to conceal Burketts duplicity by saying he was National, or Air National Guard-when he WAS ARMY NG. they want to hide the fact that he was Army, not Air Force, and so unlikely to be privy to the SECRETS, including how to FORGE AF Documents!!! That is why these fakes were easy to debunk, because AF Vets recognized the Army terms, abbreviations, format, signature element placement was totally wrong(among other things)-it was ARMY not AF-which points squarely at Burkett. A 15 yr AF Vet like Lt Col Killian wouldn't have made these mistakes. (just like Burketts' lie about being at Guard HQ in the 90's, and seeing Bushs' records being purged-THAT IS SHARP EYESIGHT-seeing as how ALL AF records are sent to storage in St Louis, Mo. when an AF member retires.)

Ask and ye shall receive

USA Today says where it got the forgeries

USA Today discloses that Burkett gave them the documents:

In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn's involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.

Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.

When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday.

“I didn't forge anything,” Burkett said. “I didn't fake any documents. The only thing I've done here is to transfer documents from people I thought were real to people I thought were real. And that has been the limitation of my role. I may have been a patsy.”

So, after being caught attempting presidential character assassination, Burkett tries the Oswald defense. Nice Guy.

USA Today is in this thing nearly as deeply as CBS. The editors should be called for their willingness to be duped by a partisan fruitcake.

Mon Sep 20, 2004

What about USA Today?

USA Today received 6 forged memos and used them in a hit-piece on Bush

Blithering Monkey has an exhaustive blog on Rathergate. He notes that USA Today received six forged memos and used them in a story questioning Bush's TANG service. So, where did USA Today get its copies of the memos? Answers, please.

King John

Stratford Festival of Canada - A Shakespeare Fan's Report (final part)

We were brought up on the image of King John as the evil usurper King in Robin Hood and the historical King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Shakespeare's King John is a troubled monarch threatened by a French led plot to place his nephew Arthur on the English throne. So, what's new with the French (scroll down an entry)? When that threat is averted, Pope Innocent's envoy stirs things up again and war breaks out between France and England. The English win in the end when the Lords, who had switched sides, learn of a French plot to kill them after the war is won, and switch back to John's side.

Yet another great production although the staging plainly suggested that any war is a nasty affair best avoided by civilised people, such as, say, Canadians.

We wrapped up our week with a brilliant staging of the frothy Cole Porter musical "Anything Goes". All it lacked was a Brodway belt voice to blow Gabriel's horn. Now, how to get rid of all those excess pounds gained from some wonderful dining out in Stratford town?

Timon

Stratford Festival of Canada - A Shakespeare Fan's Report (part 4)

Timon of Athens is the tragedy of bought love. It only lasts so long as you keep paying. Timon splurges his wealth on buying favor from his lessers. When the money runs out his bought friends do nothing to help him.

Sort of reminds me of present day politics. Bush has spent wildly trying to buy the love of the electorate with his prescription drug bill. But come election day, will the grateful seniors vote for him?

Once Timon realizes he is ruined he becomes a hermit railing madly at everyone. Is that Al Gore's problem?

This was another splendid production of a rarely done play.

Cymbeline

Stratford Festival of Canada - A Shakespeare Fan's Report (part 3)

Cymbeline is rarely done but it is at least as entertaining as most of the other Shakespeare comedies. The romantic plot line involves a French knight rather artfully framing Imogen, the heroine, as unfaithful. CBS should learn from him - use real evidence instead of obvious forgeries.

This was another great production. The acting was uniformly good and the staging excellent.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Stratford Festival of Canada - A Shakespeare Fan's Report (part 2)

A Midsummer Night's Dream

This was not one of the rarely performed Shakespeare plays; it is a perennial favorite that gives director's great latitude in staging. We saw a magical version played at night in Melbourne's Royal Botanical gardens, a punk rock version in Stratford-upon-Avon, and a very odd version staged in a mud pool at the National Theater in London. This Stratford production was Shakespeare meets Cirque du Soleil. But the company stayed true to the text while extracting more laughs than Shakespeare put in from the mechanical's play within a play, and that's saying something (the recent movie version did the opposite by casting Kevin Kline as Bottom). I saw no great political message in the play although I could note that the mechanical's ineptness brings to mind the Kerry campaign.

The bus loads of school kids at the matinee loved every minute of the performance, as did we.

A theater lover's dream come true

Stratford Festival of Canada - A Shakespeare Fan's Report (part 1)

My wife and I love theater and opera. We tend to binge by travelling to London, Stratford-upon-Avon, or New York and watching two shows a day for four or five days straight before returning home with our spirits uplifted and our funds sorely depleted. We had taken the trip to the Canadian Stratford about ten years ago and it was a mixed bag. But friends and relations had been raving about the direction the festival had taken under artistic director Richard Monette and we made the return trip. The key attraction for us was that the program included four Shakespeare plays that are rarely performed; so rarely, in fact, that I hadn't ever seen three of them, and the fourth but once.

Henry VIII

This play focuses on the relationship between Henry VIII, Queen Katharine, Henry's first wife, and Cardinal Wolsey and ends with the birth of Elizabeth. It is hard to see why this play is so neglected. Tax cutting leaders like JFK, Ronald Reagan and GWB could have drawn their inspiration from Act I, Scene II.

QUEEN KATHARINE: I am solicited, not by a few,
And those of true condition, that your subjects
Are in great grievance: there have been commissions
Sent down among 'em, which hath flaw'd the heart
Of all their loyalties: wherein, although,
My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter on
Of these exactions, yet the king our master--
Whose honour heaven shield from soil!--even he
escapes not
Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
In loud rebellion.

NORFOLK: Not almost appears,
It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And danger serves among then!

KING HENRY VIII: Taxation!
Wherein? and what taxation? My lord cardinal,
You that are blamed for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

CARDINAL WOLSEY: Please you, sir,
I know but of a single part, in aught
Pertains to the state; and front but in that file
Where others tell steps with me.

QUEEN KATHARINE: No, my lord,
You know no more than others; but you frame
Things that are known alike; which are not wholesome
To those which would not know them, and yet must
Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions,
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to the bearing; and, to bear 'em,
The back is sacrifice to the load. They say
They are devised by you; or else you suffer
Too hard an exclamation.

KING HENRY VIII: Still exaction!
The nature of it? in what kind, let's know,
Is this exaction?

QUEEN KATHARINE: I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd
Under your promised pardon. The subjects' grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from each
The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay; and the pretence for this
Is named, your wars in France: this makes bold mouths:
Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
Allegiance in them; their curses now
Live where their prayers did: and it's come to pass,
This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will. I would your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.

If they thought a tax rate of "The sixth part of his substance" was bad, they would be horrified at the rates now levied.

The acting, staging, and costumes were world class. Our only complaint was that the actor playing Wolsey always came across as a slimeball. You could not see how the King, a good judge of character, could be fooled by Wolsey for so long.

Canada - permanent news blackout

Thank God for the Internet

We just got back from a Shakespeare theater junkie trip to Stratford, Ontario. I'll post about what we saw later. But one thing struck us almost immediately. You can't get much news in Canada and none of it is fair and balanced. The inn where we stayed had 100 channels of satellite TV and we surfed in vain for anything resembling hard news. One would think the greatest tragedy that had struck the modern world was the NHL lock-out. Ditto the Canadian press. The rest of the world barely exists. In desperation we went to the Stratford Public Library and spent an hour on the Internet getting our news fix.

Why should I be surprised? The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission won't let Fox News broadcast in Canada but they will allow Al Jareeza. According to Rondi Adamson, writing in the Christian Science Monitor,

The commission says Al Jazeera doesn't compete with existing channels. True enough. We don't have a 24-hour Arabic news network that bubbles with anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. We do, however, have a public broadcaster with barely concealed anti-American and anti-Israeli biases. Canadians should perhaps be grateful their taxes don't fund Al Jazeera as they do the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

What Canadians most certainly do not have is a conservative news network. Yet Fox News was told in 2000 that it could broadcast in Canada only if it offered a schedule with 15 percent Canadian content. I'm grateful this proposal never took off, particularly when I see the Canadian version of MSNBC - Matthews, Scarborough, et al., interspersed with a distressing array of Northern talking heads singing the praises of Canadian multiculturalism, social programs, and niceness.

Little wonder that Canada has proven such a limp ally in the fight against Radical Islam - its citizenry is barely informed by the state controlled MSM. The Canadian people are more likely to receive enemy propaganda than any defense of America's position. How else to account for people like Henry King of Toronto who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail:

The Bush administration wants us to believe that foreigners, rather than Iraqis, are behind much of the insurgency in Iraq.

For once, I agree with George W. Bush. Americans are foreigners in Iraq, aren't they?

Or Frank Morgret, of St. Catharines who wrote:

President Bush's argument concerning Iraq's possession of precursors of WMDs (Bush Unfazed As Absence Of WMDs Confirmed -- Sept. 18), is, at best, disingenuous. Most homes in Canada contain precursors for weapons of mass destruction.

Oh yeah, Mr. Morgret? Do you have 500 tons of yellowcake in your backyard?

Sun Sep 19, 2004

Mullahs Quaking in Iran

United Nations Lowers the Boom

Here's something for the mullahs of Iran:

A 35-nation meeting of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency on Saturday demanded that Iran suspend all aspects of uranium enrichment, setting an indirect November deadline for Tehran to heed its conditions.

That ought to get their attention. I suspect, right at this moment, mullahs are quaking in their robes, running wild trying to destroy all their uranium enrichment equipment. Uh Huh.

Then there is this amazing feat in the Sudan:

A divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Saturday threatening oil sanctions against Sudan unless the government reins in Arab militias blamed for a killing spree in Darfur and ordered an investigation of whether the attacks constitute genocide.

The vote was 11-0 with four abstentions - China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria.

Last report has the Janjaweed fleeing into the darkest recesses of remotest Africa with their tails between their legs and the Sudanese government grovelling at Kofi's feet begging forgiveness. Could it be? Naw, more likely Kofi is doing the grovelling and contacting his Swiss bankers about wire transfers due in from Sudan.
It's good to see a good plan come together.
Unfortunately, this ain't one.

Louisiana Voters Define Marriage, Again

Bayou State Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose 'Gay Marriage'

On the 'gay marriage' front, there is this from the Bayou State:

Louisiana voters on Saturday overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriages and civil unions.

With most of the state's 4,124 voting precincts reporting, the amendment was passing by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent.

That is a pretty substantial margin. I suppose gays and their supporters could advance the argument that 80% of the state's population is homophobic, biased, bigoted, and hate-filled gay bashers, but somehow that dog just don't hunt. Surely, there must be something else to explain the overwhelming opposition to alteration of one of society's most fundamental building blocks. Any guesses as to what that something is?

Sat Sep 18, 2004

War is a Series of Catastrophes

But Victory is the Ultimate Result With a Strong National Will

Victor Davis Hanson has some sound advice for all Americans after reminding us of the folly of previous decisions that simply encouraged terrorists to continue their war against civilization:

It is true that parts of Iraq are unsafe and that terrorists are flowing into the country; but there is no doubt that the removal of Saddam Hussein is bringing matters to a head. Islamic fascists are now fighting openly and losing battles, and are increasingly desperate as they realize the democratization process slowly grinds ahead leaving them and what they have to offer by the wayside. Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and others must send aid to the terrorists and stealthy warriors into Iraq, for the battle is not just for Baghdad but for their futures as well. The world's attention is turning to Syria's occupation of Lebanon and Iran's nukes, a new scrutiny predicated on American initiatives and persistence, and easily evaporated by a withdrawal from Iraq. So by taking the fight to the heart of darkness in Saddam's realm, we have opened the climactic phase of the war, and thereupon can either win or lose far more than Iraq.

The world grasps this, and thus slowly is waking up and starting to see that if it walks and sounds like an Islamic fascist — whether in Russia, Spain, Istanbul, Israel, Iraq, or India — it really is an Islamic fascist, with the now-familiar odious signature of car bombings, suicide belts, and incoherent communiqués mixed with self-pity and passive-aggressive bluster.

For all these reasons and more, something like "See ya, wouldn't want to be ya" is the absolute worst prescription for Iraq — both for America and those Iraqis who are counting on us in their historic efforts to reclaim their country from barbarism. Amid the daily car bombings in Iraq, murder in Russia, and slaughter in the Middle East, we cannot see much hope — but it is there, and we are winning on a variety of fronts as the world continues to shrink for the Islamic fascist and those who would abet him.

Head on over and get a dose of reality. We simply must stay the course in Iraq and compliment the military victory by aiding a new Iraqi government in setting itself up as a democracy. Otherwise, we play right into Osama's hand by caving in when the going gets tough, just like he and his kind figures.

Fri Sep 17, 2004

Sending A Message to the World

Do Not Mess With Us

P J O'Rourke has a great article you really should read. Here's a taste dealing with Iraq:

A mess was left behind. But it's a mess without a military to fight aggressive wars; a mess without the facilities to develop dangerous weapons; a mess that cannot systematically kill, torture, and oppress millions of its citizens. It's a mess with a message - don't mess with us.

As frightening as terrorism is, it's the weapon of losers. When someone detonates a suicide bomb, that person does not have career prospects.

And no matter how horrific the terrorist attack, it's conducted by losers. Winners don't need to hijack airplanes. Winners have an air force.

Yessiree. Do Not Mess With Us. We are uncivilized savages with the most powerful military on earth which we will use if necessary. Comprende?
Head on over and read the rest of this entertaining and informative article.

Thu Sep 16, 2004

Understanding the Useless U.N.

Kerry Pontificates While Sudan Dies

Mort Kondracke sums up the differences between Bush and Kerry regarding the 'multilateral' concept of international dealings:

The larger lesson of Darfur is that the United Nations and France can't be relied upon to do the right thing in this world. Bush understands that. Kerry doesn't.

While Kofi and Krew ponder, debate, talk about, discuss, denounce, abhor, hate, dislike, strongly object to, and threaten sanctions, the situation in Sudan remains the same. To top it all, Sudan remains on the United Nations human rights council. Talk about your ironies.

Given the record of the U.N., it is completely unbelievable that an American senator with ambitions of becoming commander in chief, fails to grasp of the true nature of his internationalist dreams as manifested by the U.N. This self deception is not a desirable trait for an American leader. But then, you already know that. Right?

The EU Makes a Decision on Sudan

Finally, After All This Time, After All Those Deaths

Well, we waited, watched, and held our breathes as the United Nat

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