:: Netmarcos' Notes ::

:: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 ::

Sarcasm can be a very effective educational tool when properly employed. The OpinionJournal's editorial staff uses it correctly while attempting to instruct a few Democrats in this Featured Article

Democrats who actually want to win next year might consider the possibility that proposing a huge tax increase might not be popular. We know many Democrats don't want to believe this, but millions of voters prefer to keep the money they earn. Really. We're not making this up.

Heh, heh, HAAAAAW!

:: Mark 10:04 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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In the post 9-11 world, many are saying that we need to secure the borders now! Want another reason? Read this from WorldNetDaily: Kidnapping in Candelaria

According to law-enforcement sources I spoke with, a squad of armed Mexican paramilitary police or soldiers crossed into the U.S. near Candelaria Nov. 24 around 5 p.m. and took a five-member family – a husband, a wife and three minor children – captive at gunpoint. The Mexicans then brought the American family back across the border into Mexico, where they held them for several hours.
Eventually the wife and children were released and the following day they reported the incident to local authorities, who then passed the buck to Washington, via the FBI. As of Dec. 3, sources say, the husband was still being held in Mexico.
Bear in mind this family was on their own property and were well inside the boundaries of the United States. They were shooting rabbits on their own land and, according to those in the know, were not threatening any Mexican military or police units and did not fire their weapons across the border.

:: Mark 9:38 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is absolutely amazing! Why the antiwar left must confront terrorism- The director of Amnesty International USA warns that the left must confront terror with the same zeal that it battles Bush -- or risk irrelevance.

And here is a bit of the argument:

War protesters of various stripes, alongside anti-globalization and human rights activists, have staged several large rallies nationwide this year, channeling their anger at the Bush administration through slogans like "No blood for oil," "End the imperialist occupation" and "Regime change begins at home." But in an interview with Salon, Schulz said that the political left has thus far botched a key mission. "There's been a failure to give the necessary attention, analysis and strategizing to the effort to counter terrorism and protect our fundamental right to security," he said. "It's a serious problem."

Miracles can happen.

:: Mark 3:54 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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If you want to know how the "average" Iraqi views the current state of affairs in his country, you must read this:

Yes I admit there was some sort of worry in the eyes of people that one can not miss, as the future is still vague for most of the Iraqis, but you also won't miss the optimism in the eyes of the young generations.
Mixed with that there was the grief and heartache for our brothers who we still miss.
Rise my brother from your mass graves for without you our happiness will never be perfect.
We won't forget you, for it was your struggle and your blood which was shed fighting the tyrant.
Without you the world would have never even heard of our misery and we would have never been free.

You ask me not to feel gratitude to those who set me free, ask for what is more realistic.
I say it with all my heart: may Allah bless America, UK, Italy, Spain, Australia, Poland and Ukraine.
For through the sacrifices of their sons and daughters on this land, smile has found it's way to our faces.
You have to be proud for what you have done.

I will never forget this and let whoever accuse me with whatever.
I will teach it to my children so that they may grow free, helping the good people fight for others happiness.

And many of us are proud.

:: Mark 12:09 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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In today's OpinionJournal Featured Article, Karl Zinmiester points out, quite eloquently, a few of the reasons for being thankful this year. Most of the article refers to men of honor and purpose like this one:

Gregory Kolodciejczky was a New York City fireman. When the Twin Towers went down, 14 men from his stationhouse were killed, and he decided to help make sure the events of that day would never be replayed in his country. At age 32 he chucked everything and started a new career as a paratrooper. He believes that by fighting in Iraq he is honoring the memory of his dead friends, and helping protect Americans from future acts of terror. I know numerous soldiers who put aside well-paying jobs, family life, graduate school and comfortable careers after concluding, in the wake of Sept. 11, that their country needed their military service.

Near the end of the piece, Mr. Zinmiester makes this assessment of the current state of affairs in our armed forces and the quality of those who serve in them:

When you talk to our wounded soldiers they say, astonishingly, that they don't regret the fight. Almost universally, they say they are anxious to return to their units as soon as possible. Most American warriors subscribe to the words of John Stuart Mill: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

It's easy for critics on both the left and right to convince themselves that the U.S. is a decadent society, that our young people have gone soft, that we will never have another generation like the men who climbed the cliffs at Normandy. That judgment, I'm here to report, is utterly wrong. We've got soldiers in uniform today whom Americans can trust with any responsibility, any difficulty, any mortal challenge.

I agree with his assessment. It is clear that there are grave moral battles being fought in our nation that are as real and perilous as the battle scenes described by these soldiers. The tide of moral decay and debauchery that we see flooding across this nation does not speak well of our future. There exist real and immediate perils to our survival from both within and without this nation. But even in the midst of all of this, we can see the values that have made and preserved this nation polished and gleaming in the eyes and in the lives of men such as these. Not all battles, however, are fought with tanks, guns, and missles. Many are fought with words, in public debate, and with the gentle instruction of a parent teaching a child the value of honesty, integrity and honor, and with lives lived in keeping with these timeless values.

Don't forget to express your gratitude to God and men alike for the freedoms that you enjoy this Thanksgiving day... and to live in such a way that neither will ever doubt your sincerity.

:: Mark 8:45 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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When President Bush Discussed Iraq Policy at Whitehall Palace in London recently, he pointed out several historical realities that have brought us to the current state. Among them was this:

We're sometimes faulted for a naive faith that liberty can change the world. If that's an error it began with reading too much John Locke and Adam Smith. Americans have, on occasion, been called moralists who often speak in terms of right and wrong.

I often suffer from the same faults listed here, as do, I believe, many of my fellow contrymen. What a different world this would be if this little character flaw were adopted by even more people.

You should read the entire test of the Presidents speech. It was one of his best. Many self-proclaimed experts, together with critics and admirers alike, wondered out loud before President Bush's trip to London if this were not a bad idea to go at this time and anticipated a public relations disaster as a result. They got nothing of the kind.

The speech, overall, eloquently lays out the American/Brittish position in the current conflict and includes this gem:

Peoples of the Middle East share a high civilization, a religion of personal responsibility, and a need for freedom as deep as our own. It is not realism to suppose that one-fifth of humanity is unsuited to liberty; it is pessimism and condescension, and we should have none of it.

:: Mark 9:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Fun and games for the Wall Street Jounal's Leisure & Arts staff.
Trigger Happy
Family fun at the machine-gun range.

After the usual safety checks, the upper range opened up--with a vengeance. The fully automatic gunfire was deafening, with a dozen or so heavy machine guns firing at any one time. Every now and then, the din would be punctuated by the sonic-boom-like thud of a .50-caliber sniper rifle.
I listened to this high-caliber cacophony for 10 minutes or so, then went to the lower range, where you could rent lower-caliber machine guns. The range was about 100 yards deep and littered with junked cars, old refrigerators, empty propane cylinders and soft-drink cans. The weapon that immediately caught my eye was the MG42, the workhorse of the Wehrmacht and considered by many to be the finest machine gun ever made. At just 25 pounds, it can fire 1,200 rounds a minute and is lethally accurate up to 1,100 yards. I had to shoot it.
...
After signing a release form and forking over $55 for 50 rounds, I hunkered down and took aim. With remarkably little effort, I obliterated the hubcap on a rusting car about 100 yards out. Alas, running through the 50-round belt took all of about four seconds. Before I knew it, the gun owner was smiling and shaking my hand. I was happy but wanted more.

Cool.

:: Mark 9:15 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Ouch!OpinionJournal - Featured Article

The apparent failure of the U.S. push for another U.N. resolution on Iraq is at least a clarifying moment. A body incapable of agreeing to endorse even post facto reconstruction could certainly never have been expected to enforce its Iraq resolutions in the first place. So much for the argument that a kinder, gentler approach by the Bush Administration would have won U.N. support.
Equally illuminating, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has made it clear that he's now more interested in defeating President Bush than he ever was in toppling Saddam Hussein. Mr. Annan knows that Mr. Bush's policy of anti-terror prevention poses a serious challenge to what he claims is the 'unique legitimacy' of the collection of despots he leads--indeed, to the legitimacy of the unaccountable Secretary General himself.

:: Mark 11:35 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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'I Think We Can Do This'

This is the informed opinion of Washington Democrat Norman Dicks, just back from visiting Iraq, as expressed to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a House hearing last week on the Bush Administration's request for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. Given most reporting on these subjects of late, his optimism struck us as news.

Go read the whole thing.

:: Mark 3:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Lebanon Daily Star wants to know if you are Ready for the truth? Iraq is getting better

...there is something disturbing, too, about the way opponents of the war have portrayed events in Iraq. Visceral distrust of Bush and his sidekick, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has brought with it a disregard both for facts and for the victims of the Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Arab commentators have had no shame in urging their Iraqi brothers, exhausted by three major wars and more than a decade of sanctions, to start a new war “of liberation” against their liberators. Western commentators critical of the war have luxuriated in the failures of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ­ failures that condemn Iraqis to protracted hardship.
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In mid-summer, I spent over a month in Iraq. What I found there did not correspond to what was being reported ­ most crucially, that the liberators were widely perceived as occupiers. That simply wasn’t true. In Baghdad, where US forces had permitted widespread looting (although not as much as reported) and where security and services were virtually nonexistent, attitudes toward the Americans were mixed. But even in Baghdad, even with Saddam and his sons still lurking in the shadows, the sense of relief at the toppling of the regime was palpable.

Very intersting reading indeed.

:: Mark 2:14 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is just one of the quotes that Andrew Sullivan uses in his own analysis of David Kay's report on Iraqi WMDs. You won't see this sort of stuff in a NYTimes headline anytime soon.
www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

There are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASP), many of which exceed 50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordinance. Of these 130 ASPs, approximately 120 still remain unexamined. As Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical ordinance and to store it at the same ASPs that held conventional rounds, the size of the required search effort is enormous.

You should read the whole thing...and follow all of the links...and read all of the source material...and tell all of your friends to do the same...and then make up your own mind about the reasons why we chose to take Saddam out of the picture.

:: Mark 1:52 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is well worth reading.
Victor Davis Hanson on War on National Review Online
It starts off slowly, but picks up momentum as it goes.

What then are the ultimate aims of terrorists and state killers? What exactly does a crackpot Iranian mullah, a crazed Taliban, the sons of Saddam, or one of bin Laden's executioners really want with us? A sort of alternative existence to the West, upon which they both feed and prey, like some sort of toadstool that, with sufficient rain and neglect, sprouts up amid an otherwise lush green lawn.
Bin Laden (construction money), the Husseins (oil money), or the Taliban (drug revenues) all found ways to buy appurtenances of the good life from the West, even as they imported weapons to kill us, and crafted terrorist strategies to keep us from interfering in their kleptocracies or primordial theocracies, spinning myths all the while about a glorious Dark Age past or a sensuous paradise to come.
Whether terrorists are true Islamic fascists right out of the ninth-century or goofy modernist killers like Saddam, the Assads, or Khadaffis, their methods are the same, and their hatred of the West similar. Both count on an illiterate and impoverished citizenry — that famed Middle East Street whose misery-driven fury can always be deflected by a parade of shiny imported missiles, a blood-curdling lie about the Jews, or a half-educated rant about some American-inspired conspiracy to infect the water or carry off their women.

As Mr. Hanson reaches his conclusion, he invokes the spirit of Thomas Paine when he declares:

...Mr. Bush's hunch is that the tragedy of September changed us all, and his own resoluteness will prove the better hand. In other words, as polls drop and sunshine supporters fold, he senses that America — and with it civilization — will still win, and in a very big way, thus ending for good this awful contest of the last quarter-century.

Just on the off chance that this does not bring the words from the opening paragraph of Paine's imortal "American Crisis I" to mind, I have included them here.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

:: Mark 11:45 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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It is unusual for me to link to an advertisement, but I will make an exeption for this Crafted With Pride bit on NRO.

:: Mark 9:20 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Mackubin Thomas Owens discussing Civil Liberties on National Review Online draws a parallel between the Patriot act and some of the measures enacted by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War to deal with civilians who acted in support of the Confederate cause.

Lincoln's comment on the difference between times of emergency and times of peace should serve as a reply to President Bush's critics:

I can no more be persuaded that the Government can constitutionally take no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could not lawfully be taken in time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man, because it can be shown not to be good for a well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger apprehended by the meeting [of the New York Democrats] that the American people will, by means of military arrest during the Rebellion, lose the right of Public Discussion, the Liberty of Speech and the Press, the Law of Evidence, Trial by Jury, and Habeas Corpus, throughout the indefinite peaceful future, which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them during the remainder of his healthful life.

The means to preserve the end of republican government are dictated by prudence. According to Aristotle, prudence is concerned with deliberating well about those things that can be other than they are (means). In political affairs, prudence requires the statesman to be able to adapt universal principles to particular circumstances in order to arrive at the means that are best given existing circumstances. For Lincoln, as well as for President Bush, preserving republican liberty required him to choose the means necessary and proper under the circumstances. Aristotle calls prudence the virtue most characteristic of the statesman.
In the war on terrorism, as during the Civil War, we face the perennial tension between vigilance and responsibility.

You should read the whole article.

:: Mark 9:08 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I normally don't do this...and this one is in particularly bad taste (am I allowed to use such a painfully obvious pun here?)...but I just can't resist this bit from insignificant thoughts.

:: Mark 9:32 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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James Jay Carafano on War on National Review Onlinefinds even more distortions from the Bush administration's detractors.

What irony: In opposing President Bush's actions in postwar Iraq, some critics who accuse the administration of engaging in 'revisionist history' are rewriting history themselves.

What sparked their charge was a pair of speeches given Aug. 25 to the Veterans of Foreign War by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In discussing the problems facing allied occupation forces in Iraq, Rice and Rumsfeld referred to problems encountered by occupation forces in post-World War II Germany to show that post-conflict operations are often fraught with danger and difficulties.

:: Mark 9:05 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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J. D. Hayworth on Bush Haters & War on National Review Online continues to search for truth concerning Iraq in the nations major media outlets...and finds little of it.

Repeated ad nauseam is that charge that the Bush administration claimed the threat from Iraq was 'imminent.' Indeed, Gen. Wesley Clark has made that charge a major talking point. But it's rubbish. Here are the president's own words: 'Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent...If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late.' Acting before a threat becomes imminent is the essence of the Bush Doctrine. That's why it's called preemption.
Furthermore, there was never a single reason cited by the president to act against Saddam, but several, including human rights, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, regime change, and democratization. Still, the New York Times continues to distort the truth, and in the process contradicts itself.
On September 15, the paper wrote that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were 'the main rationale cited for war earlier this year.' But earlier this year, just before the war started, the very same New York Times wrote that, 'Many liberals have criticized the president's ever-changing rationales for war.…' What both have in common, of course, is that they are negative about the president.
The Bush haters are also befuddled that most Americans believe Saddam Hussein had a role in the September 11 attacks. In fact, there is a definite 9/11-Saddam link, although probably not a direct one. Setting aside the question of how much contact there was between al Qaeda and Saddam, it was Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 that set off a chain of events that led inexorably to 9/11.
Don't take my word for it. Here is what Time magazine wrote in the October 1, 2001 issue, published shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

:: Mark 9:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Julia Gorin is not very sympathetic towards Madeline Albright in an edit titled, "Not at Albright", over at FOXNews.com even though she's a woman.

Albright was catapulted to power by a combination of talent for influencing people and a rock-hard determination to not let 'the boys win out,' as she called it. The latter in particular resonated with women, who habitually credit Albright for having penetrated a man's world amid intimidating obstacles. Unfortunately, women often mistake this kind of ambition in a woman for a virtue, their logic being: 'There are enough men in positions of power screwing up the world; it's time to give a woman a chance!'
In April of last year, Albright told Canada's The Globe and Mail that she considers being a woman an advantage in foreign affairs: 'I think women are better listeners and we can relate better on a personal basis, which ultimately makes a big difference in high-level, international relations.'
...

For all the obsessive touting she does of her gender, still unable to get over herself as the first female secretary of state even after flunking the job, this is one Woman who should have aimed lower in life.
Albright has been called 'tough' on issues, an 'outspoken woman who tells it like it is.' Unfortunately, she had a knack for being tough on the wrong issues and a flair for telling it like it isn't. Even after it wasn't. In her time, the woman gave a whole new meaning to the term counter-intelligence.

:: Mark 8:48 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Star Tribune has a little editorial piece up entitled, " Truth / Too little of it on Iraq", and it has all of the usual blather about the Bush administrations' "mendacity". Follwing the quote below is the standard left-wing laundry list of alleged administration lies and distortions. Go ahead and read it if you think that you might have forgotten any of them.

Dick Cheney is not a public relations man for the Bush administration, not a spinmeister nor a political operative. He's the vice president of the United States, and when he speaks in public, which he rarely does, he owes the American public the truth.
In his appearance on 'Meet the Press' Sunday, Cheney fell woefully short of truth. On the subject of Iraq, the same can be said for President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. But Cheney is the latest example of administration mendacity, and therefore a good place to start in holding the administration accountable.

James Lileks did and had alot to say about it. This is just an excerpt. You should go read the whole thing in spite of Lileks' warning, "Okay. Now comes the gnarly stuff. Bail if you choose; see you tomorrow."

Every day I read a piece like the Strib edit. They all have an inescapable conclusion: Saddam should have been left in power. No, they don’t say that. Yes, the writers would surely insist that Saddam was a wretched tyrant, and the world is better off without him in power, BUT, Baghdad’s electricity service is now undependable. No, but. Yes, but. Perhaps, however. Perfection has not been achieved; the depredations of a three-decade nightmare have not been banished in six months, and that really is the issue, isn’t it. Sorry, what was your question again?
...

I can’t help but come back to the central theme these edits imply: we should have left Iraq alone. We should have left this charnel house stand. We should have bought a wad of nice French cotton to shove in our ears so the buzz of the flies over the graves didn’t distract us from the important business of deciding whether Syria or China should have the rotating observer-status seat in the Oil-for-Palaces program. Afghanistan, well, that’s understandable, in a way; we were mad. We lashed out. But we should have stopped there, and let the UN deploy its extra-strong Frown Beams against the Iraqi ambassador in the hopes that Saddam would reduce the money he gave to Palestinian suicide bombers down to five grand. Five grand! Hell, that hardly covers the parking tickets your average ambassador owes to the city of New York; who’d blow themselves up for that.

Would the editorialists of the nation be happier if Saddam was still cutting checks to people who blew up not just our allies, but our own citizens? I’d like an answer. Please. Essay question: “Families of terrorists who blow up men, women and children, some of whom are Americans, no longer receive money from Saddam, because Saddam no longer rules Iraq. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Explain.”

In short: the same people who chide America for its short-attention span think we should have stopped military operations after the Taliban was routed. (And they quite probably opposed that, for the usual reasons.) The people who think it’s all about oil like to snark that we should go after Saudi Arabia. The people who complain that the current administration is unable to act with nuance and diplomacy cannot admit that we have completely different approaches for Iraq, for Iran, for North Korea. The same people who insist we need the UN deride the Administration when it gives the UN a chance to do something other than throw rotten fruit.

The same people who accuse America of coddling dictators are sputtering with bilious fury because we actually deposed one.

You really should go read the whole thing...and follow all of the embedded links to background stories and corroborating sources. And don't fault James for his attitude. It's not really his. He is actually sharing it with about 69% of the American people.

:: Mark 8:26 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Now, this is fabulous journalism! USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."
CNN had no comment.

At least not one that would improve their ratings.... Heh.

:: Mark 8:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Oh, yeah. Go read this one!OpinionJournal - Extra

Many years ago Chris Matthews--now famous on TV--hit on an interesting formulation: He said the Democrats were the 'mommy party' and the Republicans the 'daddy party.' That is, the Democrats were 'nurturers,' concerned with health policy and day care. The Republicans were 'protectors,' taking care of national security and other manly matters. This notion is obviously galling to some. But Mr. Matthews was on to something, and we now find ourselves in a 'daddy party' time.

:: Mark 9:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Try this one. OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

The Face of the Enemy
The Knight Ridder news service has interviewed some members of the anti-American guerrilla/terrorist forces in Iraq, and it's clear that this is not a popular resistance movement:
The two cell leaders said their fighters primarily were former Iraqi army officers and young Iraqis who had joined because they were angry over the deaths or arrests of family members during U.S. raids in the hunt for Saddam Hussein and his supporters.
The group also shelters remnants of a non-Iraqi Arab unit of Saddam's elite fedayeen militia force, they said, as well as foreigners who slipped across the country's long and porous borders to battle American troops.
Those who say that the continuing resistance makes the war a 'failure' are deluding themselves. That there are still active pro-Saddam forces is testament to the war's success: Most of these people would have been killed had the major combat part of the war been much longer and bloodier. And, as we've said repeatedly, the presence of non-Iraqi terrorists is a feature, not a bug. Much better to have these people in Iraq, where tens of thousands of American troops can kill or capture them, than in other countries where they'd pose a danger to civilians.

:: Mark 7:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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It has been a while since I was last active on this forum. Unemployment can mess up your schedule and priorities like that. Still looking for something new, but I have high hopes for the future.

Hey, if you know of anyone looking for an Active Directory architect/consultant, please send them my way.

:: Mark 11:56 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Over on the OpinionJournal, John Cornyn asks what we should do in the event of a terrorist strike against memebers of congress. The Constitution requires a majority of senators and/or representative to be present for a vote. Specifically a quorum, consisting of a majority of the whole number. He, along with others, suggests that a constitutional ammendment to allow for the continued operation of both houses of Congress in the event that, due to death or injury, a majority could not be assembled.

While I am not opposed to the idea in principle, I need to see the proposed wording before I can pass judgement on this. Senator Cornyn(R-Texas) envisions something similar to the 25th ammendment, and I agree with his logic, but we must be very careful to avoid enacting anything that would lend itself to broader interpretation.

Our ability to ensure Congress would be able to continue to function under the current constitutional restrictions is woefully limited. States have power to allow their governors to appoint senators in cases of vacancies, and 48 states have elected to do so. But the Constitution provides no immediate mechanism for filling vacancies in the House, nor for redressing the problem of large numbers of members in either chamber being incapacitated.

Vacancies in the House can be filled only by special election. That takes months to conduct, for reasons of mechanical feasibility, democratic integrity, and the rights of military and other absentee voters.

What's more, it is impossible to address the problem of incapacitated members. If 50 senators were in the hospital and unable either to perform their duties or resign, they could not be replaced. The Senate could be unable to operate for up to four years.

Accordingly, the Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan panel of former congressional leaders and government officials from across the political spectrum, unanimously endorsed a constitutional amendment to fix this problem in cases of catastrophic attack. Just as the 25th Amendment ensures continuity of the presidency, the proposed amendment would ensure continued congressional operations.

:: Mark 11:53 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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A great piece of analysis by Michael Novak on George W. Bush on National Review Online that does a fine job of contrasting W's reality with common perception in Europe ans elsewhere.

Another difference between the philosophy of "compassion" pursued by the Democrats and that pursued by the Republicans is that, in words President Clinton made famous, Democrats emphasize "feeling your pain," sensitivity, caring intentions. (The left presents itself as a kind of parallel to, or substitute for, religious feelings.) This emphasis on the heart also accounts for the disdain which leftists express for those on the right, whom they regard as either stupid or evil, or both, and decidedly beyond the pale of human decency.

By contrast, the Republicans define compassion in view of results achieved. Good intentions don't count. (The road to hell is paved with them.) They don't much admire sensitive feelings, or delicate expressions of solicitude. "Talking the talk" doesn't count — they think Democrats do altogether too much of that. What counts is results: actually improving the daily lives of the purported recipients of compassion. Europeans may have noticed how often Bush describes himself as a "results-oriented guy."

:: Mark 1:00 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Oh; now this is fabulous! OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

Accepting for the sake of argument that the enemy in Iraq indeed consists of 'mostly Iraqis' (more on this in the next item), they are 'the people' America is in Iraq to liberate only in the sense that the oppressors and the oppressed are of the same nationality. But this reinforces Rice's point, for the same was true in Birmingham in 1963. Jim Crow was a system under which Americans oppressed Americans, just as Baathism was a system under which Iraqis oppressed Iraqis.
The only obvious difference is that in the South, the oppressors and the oppressed were easily identifiable by skin color. Wickham's argument thus amounts to the assertion that because to him Iraqis all look alike, their oppression counts for nothing. What an appalling display of moral idiocy.

:: Mark 2:33 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This column "OpinionJournal - The Western Front" highlights some very disturbing possibilities.

Federal authorities say Moussaoui has been tied to Flight 93 by a phone number found on a business card carried by one of the terrorists aboard the plane, which went down in Pennsylvania. They claim Moussaoui had called that same number. If prosecutors are right, Moussaoui shouldn't be thought of as the '20th hijacker' and the would-be fifth terrorist on Flight 93. Instead, he may have been one of 25 terrorists who'd planned to crash planes into U.S. targets.

Go read it all.

:: Mark 10:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Just in case you thought that YOU were having a bad day!
HoustonChronicle.com - Man sues clinic, doctors after sex organ removed

WICHITA FALLS -- A mechanic is suing a clinic and two doctors, claiming they removed his penis and testicles without consulting him after they mistakenly thought he had cancer.

:: Mark 5:11 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Some more crazy stuff going on...
WorldNetDaily: Iran, Cuba zap U.S. satellites

By successfully jamming a U.S. communications satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, the regimes of Cuba and Iran challenged U.S. dominance of space and the assumptions of free access to satellite communication that makes undisputed U.S. military power possible

...

'Interfering with outside transmissions intended for a third country borders on hostile action,' says Johnson. 'A weak response may invite further mischief.' But a 'ham-handed' response, Johnson adds, might give Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a martyr image he craves.

:: Mark 5:08 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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What sort of society would hold this man up as a cultural icon, while diriding the Boy Scouts as insensitive bigots?

Days after announcing his candidacy for California governor, self-described "smut peddler" Larry Flynt staged a peculiar event to rally supporters – a prayer vigil seeking the death of Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.

:: Mark 4:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Oooooh; This report from Reuters sounds promising

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea is in talks to export its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.

:: Mark 4:52 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Hans Zeiger has a column up on WorldNetDaily entitled, "Boy Scout zealots at Camp Balboa?" that should be required reading for anyone with interest in the issues surrounding the B.S.A. of late. Please read the whole artile. It is well researched and direct in disclosing the facts in this instance, and in the overall battle for the heart and soul of this nation.

With 'overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence,' Judge Napoleon Jones found that the Boy Scouts are a religious organization and they were given preferential treatment when the City of San Diego first agreed to let the Boy Scouts utilize public land in Balboa Park 88 years ago.
''Belief in God is and always has been central to BSA's principles and purposes,'' Judge Jones wrote. ''Adult leaders are expected to reinforce in Scouts the values of duty to God and reverence.''
Duty to God? Reverence? Those are old-fashioned values. The Boy Scouts must be stuck in the past. It is time for the Boy Scouts to change and allow atheists and homosexuals and girls to join in on camping trips and troop meetings. Thus saith the ACLU.

...

There is "overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence" that the ACLU is destroying America, one Boy Scout camp at a time.

Indeed.


Update: WorldNetDaily: Judge rules Scouts 'religious' group

"The fact that they've invested a substantial amount of money in the park is not a justification for them to occupy park land for free," Budd told the Union-Tribune.

Budd said if the Scouts want a public subsidy and free access to public park land, they must do what virtually every other youth organization has done.

"The Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls, the YMCA, the YWCA – every other youth organization has abandoned exclusive membership policies," he said.

:: Mark 11:55 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Hey!, The Australian PM gets it. Whay can't the Episcopalians?NEWS.com.au | Howard rules out gay marriage (August 5, 2003)

PRIME Minister John Howard has ruled out supporting gay marriages because they were incompatible with an institution designed to ensure 'the survival of the species'.

Read it.

:: Mark 11:43 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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This story points out some good news coming out of Iraq. The integrity of the Iriqi police officer in this event is refresshing and should serve to bolster the confidence of the Iraqi citizenry in a free future.
United Press International: Saddam's gold discovered in truck

A routine Iraqi traffic stop has turned up what may be $90 million in gold bars in this town just over 50 miles south of Baghdad.
While the financial haul is major, U.S. Marines helping to get this town back on its feet say something more valuable has come out of the episode: the notion that Iraqis can begin to trust their government.
just shows you the character and integrity of the people will come up and surprise you,' said Maj. Martin Casado, the operations officer for the 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment of the Marines, 1st Division, which is headquartered here.
'They will definitely surprise you and make you feel like you are here for a reason, and it's a good reason.'

:: Mark 11:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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You could find a much less productive use for you time than to read Norman Geras' column in the Opinion Journal as he tries to explain Why did so many on the left march to save Saddam Hussein?

What they align themselves with is a future of prolonged hardship and suffering for the Iraqi people, whether via an actual rather than imagined quagmire, a ruinous civil war, or the return (out of either) of some new and ghastly political tyranny; rather than a rapid stabilization and democratization of the country, promising its inhabitants an early prospect of national normalization. That is caring more to have been right than for a decent outcome for the people of this long-unfortunate country.
Such impulses have displayed themselves very widely across left and liberal opinion in recent months. Why? For some, because what the U.S. government and its allies do, whatever they do, has to be opposed--and opposed however thuggish and benighted the forces which this threatens to put your antiwar critic into close company with. For some, because of an uncontrollable animus towards George W. Bush and his administration. For some, because of a one-eyed perspective on international legality and its relation to issues of international justice and morality.
Whatever the case or the combination, it has produced a calamitous compromise of the core values of socialism, or liberalism or both, on the part of thousands of people who claim attachment to them. You have to go back to the apologias for, and fellow-traveling with, the crimes of Stalinism to find as shameful a moral failure of liberal and left opinion as in the wrongheaded--and too often, in the circumstances, sickeningly smug--opposition to the freeing of the Iraqi people from one of the foulest regimes on the planet.

:: Mark 12:56 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is disturbing.Boston.com / Latest News / Northeast / Schools chief fails must-pass test

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) Superintendent of Schools Wilfredo T. Laboy, who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a basic English proficiency test, has himself flunked a required literacy test three times, The Eagle-Tribune reported Sunday.

It is not quite as bad as it seems at first glance; the super's native language is Spanish, but that does not get him off the hook, nor does his failure excuse or in anyway justify the poor performance of the other 24 teachers. I weep for the children of this nation that must face these teachers in school.

:: Mark 12:50 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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We may NEVER hear the end of the Clinton's! NEW RICH $CANDAL
- New York Post Online Edition: seven

Bill Clinton's socialite pal Denise Rich disguised a $2,000 donation to Hillary Rodham Clinton by coercing her record promoter to make the contribution and later reimbursing him, a new $30 million legal suit charges.
The promoter, Jimmy Hester, who filed the federal lawsuit in Manhattan yesterday, is now at the center of the FBI's long-running criminal probe into the circumstances surrounding Clinton's last-minute presidential pardoning of Rich's ex-husband, Marc Rich, The Post has learned.

Update: NY Daily News - World and National Report - Hillary playing it low-key on talk of illegal C-notes

Sen. Hillary Clinton should return a possibly illegal $2,000 campaign contribution made in 1999 by an employee of a top Democratic fund-raiser, a former federal elections official said yesterday.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, music manager Jimmy Hester charged that in 1999 his then-boss - wealthy songwriter and fund-raiser Denise Rich - demanded he make an illegal $2,000 campaign contribution to Clinton's Senate campaign. Hester said Rich later reimbursed him.
Representatives for Rich and Clinton (D-N.Y.) declined to comment yesterday.
But Larry Noble, general counsel of the Federal Election Commission from 1987 to 2000, said Clinton should simply give back the money amid the charges of impropriety.
The lawsuit is 'probably a pretty strong indication that [the money] should be returned ... that would raise enough concern,' Noble said.

:: Mark 12:45 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Moseley Braun says it's time for a female U.S. president - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics

Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois yesterday said it is time to elect a woman president to solve the nation's problems.
'Women tend to be oriented to practical solutions and problem solving,' the Democratic presidential candidate said. 'If you want practical solutions that solve multiple problems, turn the job over to a woman. Women deserve a chance to lead.'

I agree. Let's elect Condi Rice in '08.

:: Mark 12:43 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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There is some scary stuff going on out there.U.S. parents say son in Iraq was casualty of chemical weapons - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics

The parents of an American soldier who died in Iraq after contracting a mysterious pneumonialike illness that ravaged his major organs are convinced that their son stumbled across deadly chemical weapons while clearing rubble from one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.

:: Mark 12:41 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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A note about the search for weapons from Instapundit.com:: "

IF THE WEAPONS HAVEN'T BEEN FOUND BY NOW, THEY WERE CLEARLY NEVER THERE -- I don't care what this report says:

Then Glenn says you should read this.

You just have to read it all.

:: Mark 10:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq on National Review Online attempts to bring some historical perspective to the "Quagmire" argument.

he forces that win or lose wars are insidious, cumulative, and often hard to discern. Apparently dormant, they suddenly burst forth, and the entire complexion of the struggle without warning is forever changed; or the war itself can even be abruptly ended. We saw that in week three in Iraq: The quagmire suddenly became the cakewalk, leaving exasperated the nitpickers who had hours before predicted weeks of killing and thousands of dead.

...

Poor Abraham Lincoln, during the late spring and early summer of 1864! There was talk then of an endless quagmire, of a Copperhead presidency under McClellan with the specter of a brokered armistice. Grant was bogged down in a slugfest in northern Virginia; Sherman's long supply lines were being shredded by Nathan Bedford Forrest and his own sort of Fedayeen.

Read the whole thing

:: Mark 9:53 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Ramesh Ponnuru comments on the controversy surrounding the confirmation debate on the federal appeals-court nomination of William Pryor and claims that, Yes, They’re Anti-Catholic" in reference to "The Democrats and judges."

So Republican rhetoric about the Democrats' having adopted a "religious test for office" is not true. It is true, however, that the Democrats have adopted the next best thing. They have a viewpoint test for office that has the effect of screening out all Catholics faithful to their church's teachings on abortion. The fact that the test screens out a lot of Protestants, too, makes the problem worse, not better. It really is true that faithful Catholics "need not apply" as far as most Democrats are concerned. A Catholic can win their support only by ceasing, on the decisive issue, to be Catholic — by breaking from his church's teaching, as Senator Durbin has done. (It is rather disgraceful for a man who went in six years from supporting the Human Life Amendment to supporting partial-birth abortion to keep carrying on about the extremism of people whose beliefs have been less supple.)

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Is it fair to make a political issue of the impact that a litmus test has on a religious group? Absolutely. In the hypothetical example above, I think it would be entirely reasonable to ask a politician to declare openly that adherents to the ritual-murder religion should not be eligible for certain jobs. That declaration would of course affect the votes of those adherents, and of other citizens who are sympathetic to them. The Democrats are not prepared openly to say that their litmus test excludes Catholics and evangelical Protestants. That's why they will continue to squeal even if Republicans make the argument in the most precise, rhetorically clean way possible. And why Republicans should not flag in doing exactly that.

:: Mark 9:48 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Vincent Carroll points out a bit more media hipocracy in the coverage given to some "peace activist" nuns.OpinionJournal - Taste

Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson--who were sentenced, respectively, to 41 months, 33 months and 30 months--did something that is socially acceptable among many mainstream journalists. In October of last year, they cut through a security fence and poured their own blood in the shape of crosses onto a Minuteman III silo lid. And this was by no means their first run-in with authorities. Their long history of activism included arrests at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs two years before for striking a fighter jet with a hammer and tossing a bottle of their blood on its landing gear.
A Denver Post columnist found such behavior positively angelic. 'The nuns have never hurt anyone,' he wrote. 'They never will. They're sort of like angels. If the whole world adopted their sacrifice and respect for humanity, terrorism and war would cease. So would crime.' Another columnist in the same paper extolled the sisters for living 'a philosophy of nonviolence, simplicity, community, economic justice . . . and environmental sensitivity.'

Uh, excuse me, Colorado press corps, but your bias is showing. Oh, you don't mind? Well fine then. Just don't whine when your objectivity is questioned. Please do not misunderstand me; I strongly support your right to you make your opinions known. Just don't expect me to agree with them, and don't cry when I voice my dissent.

:: Mark 9:30 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Ah, c'mon! You just gotta read this one! Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church will pay white people to attend services during August to increase the diversity of its congregation.

Bishop Fred Caldwell said he will pay $5 per hour for Sunday services and $10 an hour for the Thursday service. The idea came to him during his sermon Sunday.

'Our churches are too segregated, and the Lord never intended for that to happen. It's time for something radical.'

:: Mark 4:14 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Simply unbelievable. WorldNetDaily: Liberal segregationists in the schools

Phyllis Yarber Hogan, a member of something called the Oberlin Black Alliance for Progress, agrees: "When you talk about slavery," she told the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week, "students need to understand it is not our fault. Our ancestors did nothing wrong to be enslaved. How do you work through that when the person teaching it is the same type of person who did the enslaving?"

...

The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, up to their eyeballs in political corruption scandals and campaign-finance evasion and embezzlement investigations, naturally have nothing to say about this blatant classroom racism. But oh, can you even imagine the national uproar if a white school-board president and a "White Alliance for Progress" objected to black teachers teaching 19th century American history because they were the "same type of persons" who were ignorant slaves at the time?

Read it all. Read some more. Follow the story. Pay attention to the outcome. Weep for our nation's children who are under the control of this corrupt, misguided and self-destructive racially bigoted educational system.

:: Mark 10:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Wendy McElroy on FOXNews.comadvises students and parents to pack a few important items when they head back to school this fall.

This September, make sure the students you care for pack protection of their civil liberties in with clothing and reference books.
This is essential for students who are male, white, conservative, openly Christian, or from affluent families.

If you fit any of these categories, you must read it all.

:: Mark 6:13 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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What goes around... Comes around.

Larry Ellison must have had a Seinfeld (search ) moment when told that his nemesis, Conway, had hired Larry’s former comrade-in-arms, Reback, to bring in the feds. I can see Larry now, grinding his teeth, mumbling, “Reback!!” just like Jerry would with Newman.
Larry Ellison does not make many mistakes. But his decision to bring the Department of Justice and state Attorneys General into the business of the high tech sector could be the one he most regrets. His tactics and the plans of his colleagues are now being used against him and his effort to buy PeopleSoft.
Is turnabout fair play? Perhaps, but the precedent that has been set is a dangerous one. Larry Ellison and a few other powerful Microsoft competitors invited the government to come into the industry to target their rival. They did so for selfish reasons, but now they may see the tables turned, as Milton Friedman predicted. Once the government has the power to regulate part of the tech industry, it will likely expand its reach and the entire industry and the economy will suffer.
Larry Ellison is now stuck in Seinfeld’s “Bizarro World” and I have a sneaky feeling that he is regretting the day he invited the government into Silicon Valley.

:: Mark 6:09 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus on National Review Online is even more critical of the current state of racial disharmony in America.

Look, I've written against the ghastly racialization of American society for years — and I'm not sure I can say anything more. Excuse the defeatist air, but that's the way I'm feeling right now. I'm just about ready to wave the white (oops) flag.
If you say a white teacher can't teach 'black history,' you must say that a black teacher can't teach 'white history.' (Why should we have 'black history' and 'white history' anyway? When it comes to the United States, black people are as much a part of the story as cherry trees, Westward expansion, D-Day, and everything else.) When you say that black children must have 'black role models,' because white ones won't do, you must say, at the same time, that white children can't look up to Jackie Robinson, Marian Anderson, etc.
But you've heard these points a million times. There's nothing left to do but sigh — or get madder, which, on second thought, is better — more constructive — than sighing.

:: Mark 5:54 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This Peter Kirsanow article concerning the recent Supreme Court decision on Racial Preferences in college admissions in the National Review Online brings up some obvious, but often ignored by products of such a policy.

Yes, we know that the Supreme Court permits selective colleges to award a 'plus' to black, Hispanic, and Native-American applicants. But just who, exactly, qualifies as black, Hispanic, or Native American?
Absurd Supreme Court decisions can produce seemingly absurd questions. But as silly as the above query sounds, it's one courts have wrestled with for much of our history, particularly during the Jim Crow era. Fortunately, those days are gone. But now the Grutter case has once again revived the distasteful relevance of racial identification.

:: Mark 5:50 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Lileks needs to loosen up and let the world know how he REALLY feelsLILEKS (James) The Bleat

At the mall Saturday afternoon we passed a big sign in the Express window; it advertised “Recklessly Sexy Jeans.” Sounds to me like “jeans that make you sleep with anyone after a couple of shots of Captain Morgan.” Might as well infuse the pants with clamydia; saves time.

:: Mark 4:31 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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KAY S. HYMOWITZ asks in a piece titled, "STUPID WHITE LIES
- Michael Moore, Humbug "
He's mendacious and obnoxious, so what accounts for his appeal?

Recently a wealthy Chicago couple named Drobney announced their plan to bankroll a left-wing talk radio station. They needn't bother. The left already has a multimedia star--and even without a radio station, he's bigger than Rush, has more fans than O'Reilly, and sells books faster than Coulter. Followers plead with this "folk hero for the American people" to run for president. Reviewers compare him to Twain, Voltaire and Swift. Unlike Rush & Co., the appeal of this blue-collar megastar extends far beyond the hoi polloi. Hollywood and Manhattan agents wave gazillion-dollar contracts in front of his face. He wins prestigious awards that will never grace the Limbaugh or O'Reilly dens--Oscars, Emmys, Writers Guild Awards and jury prizes at Cannes (where his latest movie received a record 13-minute standing ovation). People stop him on the streets of Berlin, Paris and London--where, according to Andrew Collins of the Guardian, they consider him "the people's filmmaker."

Ms. Hymowitz continues...

Mr. Moore is hardly the first to engage in a little nostalgic mythmaking. What makes him unique is his willingness to construct his myths on a scaffolding of calculated untruths. It's an irony worth savoring. Mr. Moore's chief conceit is that he is the lonely truth teller, seeking out the story no one else is brave enough to touch. He repeatedly blasts the media for ignoring issues that only he, a lowly college dropout, has the courage to bring before a hoodwinked public. "In the beginning there was a free press--well not really, but it sounded good," the announcer of his TV series, "The Awful Truth," would say as the show opened. But the awful truth is that Mr. Moore himself is a virtuoso of lying--which is the only way he can give the appearance of truth to his untenable theories.

She then classifies Mr. Moore's lies and highlights a few examples of each type: bold-faced lies, lies of omission, artistic lies, slanted, insinuating lies, lies of exaggeration... you get the idea.

I would not have been so generous in my characterization of Mr. Moore nor of his work, but it is a good article none the less.

:: Mark 10:13 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Legendary entertainer Bob Hope has died aged 100, a family spokesman said on Monday. Hope died of pneumonia on Sunday night at 9:28 p.m. with his family at his side, spokesman Ward Grant said.

He will be missed.

:: Mark 10:00 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Bill Press is a bit loose with the facts in his arguments against the recall initiative in California.

Losers should not be able to demand an instant replay of every election. Else how can anyone, Republican or Democrat, ever govern?

This is a fundamental tenet of democracy that today's Republicans don't seem to understand. In 2000, they didn't like the outcome in Florida, so they asked the Supreme Court to overturn it. In 2002, they didn't like the outcome in California, so now they're asking voters to rerun it. Win or lose, why don't they just accept the will of the voters? Isn't that what democracy's all about?

As I remember it, the Republicans went to the Supreme Court in 2000 to block the Democrats from overturning a result that THEY did not like.

:: Mark 11:49 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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You must read the following from Scrappleface. Scott always amuses and amazes the rest of us with his droll wit and incisive satire, but he has never been more droll or incisive than he is today!ScrappleFace: Saddam to Offer Eulogy at Sons' Funeral

(2003-07-22) -- Saddam Hussein may deliver the eulogy at a state funeral for his sons, Uday and Qusay, who died suddenly today in Mosul. The elder Hussein was invited to speak at the funeral by the commander of allied ground forces in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

'We understand the emotions triggered by the death of one's sons,' said Lt. Gen. Sanchez. 'So, we want Mr. Hussein to stand up there on the podium, in clear line of sight, and tell the world how special his boys were. We aim to give Saddam the respect due a leader of his caliber. I can assure you that he will have the full attention of many of our finest men.'

The allied commander said Mr. Hussein's remarks would last 'roughly 7.5 seconds, after which the former Iraqi leader, doubtless with a heavy heart, will return to an underground bunker.'

"

There are few that could have expressed it better, but some of the responses to this one come close. My personal favorites are posted under the names of Mikey with, "uday and qusai are edday, onay erginsvay!", and this bit from Greyhawk,"This brings to "two" the total number of sons of Saddam killed by enemy fire since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities in Iraq."
Brilliant!

:: Mark 7:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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If you have not taken the time to study the comments made by the British PM Tony Blair to Congress, take the time to do so now.The following is just a taste:A Fight for Liberty

There never has been a time when the power of America was so necessary or so misunderstood, or when, except in the most general sense, a study of history provides so little instruction for our present day. We were all reared on battles between great warriors, between great nations, between powerful forces and ideologies that dominated entire continents. And these were struggles for conquest, for land or money. And the wars were fought by massed armies, and the leaders were openly acknowledged, the outcomes decisive.
Today, none of us expect our soldiers to fight a war on our own territory. The immediate threat is not conflict between the world's most powerful nations. And why? Because we all have too much to lose. Because technology, communication, trade and travel are bringing us ever closer together. Because in the last 50 years, countries like yours and mine have trebled their growth and standard of living. Because even those powers like Russia, China or India can see the horizon of future wealth clearly and know they are on a steady road toward it. And because all nations that are free value that freedom, will defend it absolutely, but have no wish to trample on the freedom of others.

:: Mark 10:44 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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From the OpinionJournal - Taste column:

For the first time in six centuries the muezzin's cry echoed over Spanish Granada with the inauguration in that city of a new mosque last week. The call to prayer hadn't been heard in the old capital of Moorish civilization since the last Muslim king was expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

Wistfully overlooking the peerless 14th-century Alhambra palace below, the boxy, whitewashed mosque sits atop a hill, wedged between a convent and a church. It's saga has been a long and unlucky one. Begun in 1981 with Libyan money, which soon petered out, it was taken up by King Hassan II of Morocco, who soon died, and completed finally with funds mostly from the United Arab Emirates.

...

A rather ominous remark by a top mosque official was quoted approvingly in the Muslim coverage. The new mosque, he said, would be "one of the purest sources of Islam." Someone should have told him that the Islam of Moorish culture at its height was not pure but thoroughly evolved after eight centuries of collaboration with Jews and Christians. In fact, one could argue that the oft-bewailed missing "reformation" of Islam was under way there, until it was aborted by the Inquisition. At any rate, doctrinally Moorish Islam was anything but fundamentalist. The new one, however, is unlikely to be anything else.

The completion and opening came at a bad time, arguably the worst moment in Spanish-Muslim relations since the muezzin went silent. Not only has Spain uncovered a string of al Qaeda plots on its soil but it has publicly backed the invasion of Iraq to the anger of its growing Muslim population, some 500,000 at last count. Indeed, the entire new-mosque venture is now freighted with sensitive historical and political questions.

Predictably, the Spanish authorities seem to have little influence or knowledge regarding the new mosque's direction, although they vetted its architectural design with scrupulous care. The funding came from outside the country. As for the religious precepts and the choice of members for the mosque's five-person ruling committee, all were determined independently.
Here, then, is a precise illustration of the West's complicity in its own troubles. The mosque seems customized for Spanish soil and the traditions of Spaniards only aesthetically. Spiritually and politically--which are the same thing to hardline Islamists--the mosque remains a product of forces from outside Spain.

This article raises some serious ethical questions about government involvement in and influence on religious philosophical discussion. Mr. Kaylan seems to advocate that the Spanish government take an active role in determining what is taught with this comment:

Why shouldn't Spain actively try to re-create Moorish standards of Islam in doctrine as well as in brick and mortar? It can start by sponsoring a Spain-inspired creed within its own borders. We in the West complain incessantly about anti-Western thought in Saudi-inspired madrassas, or religious schools, around the world. We demand that they open up to a freer market of ideas, but we shy from entering the marketplace. We can start within our own borders by sowing new ideas in mosques and madrassas. The benefits will accrue as much to Islam as to the West. After all, the grandeur of Moorish culture grew not out of a pursuit of purity but from the irritant of exposure to other cultures.

While the return if Islam to the Iberian peninsula may be troubling for many valid reasons, a return to Spanish government involvement in religious instruction holds equally troubling potential.

:: Mark 10:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) is pushing for a Repeal Of D.C. Gun Ban

'It is time to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and to defend their families against murderous predators,' said Hatch, whose bill has 18 co-sponsors. 'Try to imagine the horror that [a] victim felt when he faced a gun-toting criminal and could not legally reach for a firearm to protect himself.'

:: Mark 1:45 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Great stuff!
Bush: Saddam Bought Geraniums, Not Uranium

July 15 — In an extraordinary retraction of key elements in his last State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush revealed today that Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein did not attempt to buy uranium in Africa, as earlier alleged, but merely geraniums. “As I was reading the speech to the nation, I should have caught that typo,” the President told reporters today. “My bad.”

:: Mark 11:10 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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You must read this! If there is anyone left in America that does not see that PC insanity and hyper-sensitivity to all slights and slurs -real or imagined- is completely out of control, then they are blind by their own free choice.Dishonor on Campus - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED

Just when you think the politically correct clowns on the campus can't get any more ridiculous, they shoot another live white man out of a canon.

It would seem that the creed of the advocates of tolerance and the free exchange of ideas on our nation's campuses reads thusly:"The only group who's right of free expression is not worthy of protection is comprised of those individuals with whom we disagree."

:: Mark 10:19 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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The Instapundit points this bit out in the ongoing gun control debate:Instapundit.com:

The District of Columbia is a case-study in the ineffectiveness of gun-control. Heck, it's a case study in the ineffectiveness of a lot of outdated government policies.
But here's the most revealing quote:

Matt Nosanchuk, litigation director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control advocacy group, said there is no evidence that greater access to guns reduces crime.

Ya gotta read it all.

:: Mark 10:08 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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More fallout from the Nevada Suporeme Cout's recent decision:OpinionJournal - John Fund's Political Diary

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who as minority whip is the most powerful Senate Democrat after Tom Daschle, has just had his re-election thrown into jeopardy by five fellow Democrats who sit on the Nevada Supreme Court. The justices, joined by the court's lone Republican, threw out a constitutional amendment that required state tax increases be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, saying it was superseded by the Nevada Constitution's mandate to fund public education.

:: Mark 10:05 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Roger Atwood reports in the OpinionJournal on the rest of the story about the looting of the Iraqi National Museum.

The most striking fact to emerge from discussions with those living or working around the museum is that, in the days before and during the looting, they saw the museum being turned into a major military defensive position by Iraqi forces.
In plain violation of the Hague Convention of 1954, Iraqi fighters occupied the museum complex and used it as a combat position for at least three days after museum staff had fled. Neighborhood residents corroborated the charges made by American forces that the Americans had come under attack from inside the museum grounds and that fighting in the area was heavy. Even as they criticized the Americans for not protecting their national treasures, Iraqi witnesses to the looting said that Saddam Hussein's forces had turned the museum into a small arsenal.
'The Baathists were in there, shooting at the Americans. Many people saw it,' said Jabar al-Azawi, referring to members of Saddam Hussein's party. An elderly man wearing a gray robe, he offered me a cold drink in his garden on a quiet street around the corner from the museum. He said that the fighting was so intense that everyone on the block except him fled. 'I loved the museum, and I blame the Americans and the British forces because they didn't stop the looting,' he said.
U.S. forces have cited armed resistance from inside the complex as the main reason they could not seal off the museum and prevent the looting. In the end, they protected it only after they had defeated the last remnants of Saddam's forces in the area.

You really should read the whole story.

:: Mark 10:02 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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James Taranto isn't impressed by Johnny Depp's logic:OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that actor Johnny Depp 'now plans to make Paris his permanent home because the United States 'mortifies' him with its 'childish freedom fries and freedom toast.' ' Rationalizations for supporting a genocidal dictator are so much more sophisticated.

And then he takes a swing at Johny's hosts

Look Mère, No Hands!
"Lance Armstrong retained his overall lead at the Tour de France after the tenth stage Tuesday, despite losing time to protesters who blocked the route," reports the Associated Press:

The race was marked by a protest that forced the main pack of riders to stop flat in their tracks after supporters of radical farmer Jose Bove ran into the road and blocked cyclists near Pourrieres, about 147 kilometers (91 miles) into the race.

Tour officials immediately ruled that the protest was "a normal race incident," meaning that the riders who lost time because of the protest would not get it back.

Only in France is it "normal" for antiglobalization wackos to interfere with an athletic event. Though we have to admit, French bicyclists are a pretty impressive bunch. They manage to get around without using their handlebars, since their hands are always in the air.

:: Mark 9:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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LDS News Article

APIA, Samoa — The Apia Samoa Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was destroyed by fire on Wednesday evening, 9 July 2003.

The temple was being renovated and enlarged to add an expanded baptismal font and was scheduled to be rededicated in October.

More here.

:: Mark 6:02 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Read this. Research it. And then put a stop to it!WorldNetDaily: U.N. seeking global gun control?

Barr warned that many member nations, including the UK, Netherlands and India, want to set up a legally binding protocol requiring all U.N. countries to start registration of firearms.

:: Mark 10:36 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Go Alan, go! Yahoo! News - Greenspan Says Fed Could Cut Rates Again

Greenspan said that the Fed was prepared to leave interest rates at low levels "for as long as it takes" — even though rates are at a 45-year low. The goal would be to get the economy growing at a faster pace, he said.


Greenspan's comments — part of the central bank's twice-yearly report to lawmakers - signaled that the Fed, which has already reduced a key interest rate to the lowest level since 1958, is prepared to cut rates again. This could happen as soon as its next meeting on Aug. 12 if the economy is not showing convincing signs of a post-Iraq rebound.


The Fed "stands ready to maintain a highly accommodative stance of policy for as long as it takes to achieve a satisfactory economic performance," Greenspan said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee

:: Mark 10:11 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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On a lighter note, in a WorldNetDaily article about an attempt in California to ban SUVs from state fleet, we get this bit from the SUV Owners of America:

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports, SUV Owners of America is running a full-page ad in yesterday's USA Today that pokes fun at an anti-SUV campaign by religious leaders called 'What Would Jesus Drive?'
The ad, with a smiling man standing next to his SUV, asks 'What Would Jesus (Rivera) Drive?'
'For millions of people like Jesus Rivera, it's all about safety, utility and versatility,' the ad says, according to the AP. 'Maybe that's why they call them SUVs.'

As Glenn Reynolds would say, "Heh."

:: Mark 10:34 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Maggie Gallagher opines on Marriage on National Review Online that Gay marriage is not some sideline issue, it is the marriage debate.

The fantasy of certain (not all) libertarians is that we can privatize marriage and the result will be a utopia of religiously created social order. But if marriage is just a religious rite, then it cannot also be a key social institution in a secular, pluralist nation. We do not depend on faith communities to ensure the education of children or the maintenance of private property because we understand that society needs educated citizens and a stable realm of property in order to prosper. The question is: Do we also need marriage?

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Marriage is a universal human institution. We do not know of any culture that has survived without a reasonably functional marriage system. Perhaps stray reproduction by single moms plus immigration can sustain America over the long haul. A look at Europe, however, does not make one sanguine. The attempt to substitute the state for the family leads not only to gargantuan government, but to miniscule families: If marriage and children are just one of many private lifestyle choices, people stop getting married and they stop having children in numbers large enough to replace the population. (One child is enough to make you a mother. When marriage is unreliable, just how foolhardy do you expect women to be?). The U.N. is now issuing urgent warnings about European depopulation.

You should read it all.

:: Mark 10:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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More comentary on the pathetic state of the American judiciary from Barbara Simpson:: WorldNetDaily: Justice in America: Anything but blind

The California Supreme Court ruled last month that if a judge has been either a member of the Boy Scouts or volunteers with the organization, they have to admit it. In other words, in cases where sexual orientation is key, the assigned judge must either recuse himself (drop out of the case) or disclose his connection with the Boy Scouts so the lawyers can decide whether to ask for his removal. This ruling gives them the power to do that.

She goes on:

As for the court ruling, what's next? If guilt by association is valid, should we require full and total disclosure of everything? We're already seeing how pro-life candidates for judicial nominations are excoriated for their belief.

How about having full religious disclosure? After all, those Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Muslims and other belief systems have some pretty strong positions on issues that are not necessarily politically correct. Maybe we should weed them out too, or at least label them.

How about judges who are (you should excuse the expression) patriotic? Should they be disqualified from a treason case? What about their political views? Should a Republican hear the case of a Democrat? A black hear a "white" case? An atheist hear a religious case?

I have to agree. We are in a lot of trouble here, and it will only get worse.

:: Mark 5:11 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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If you think that the US Supreme Court is out of control, you should look at Nevada's State Supreme Court.

A handful of legislators had promised their voters that they would not raise taxes. They opposed the new budget, because, as one legislator said, 'we cannot pass an education budget without the revenue to support it. That would be like writing a check, when we know we don't have the money in our account.'

Since 2/3 of the legislature must approve any tax increase, these leaders were able to stop the new taxes. But rather than reach an agreement with the people's representatives, Governor Guinn filed suit against them, arguing that since the constitution requires the legislature to fund public schools, the court should simply order the budget passed.

The court agreed, and ordered the legislature to pass the budget under simple majority rule. Since 'the procedural two-thirds revenue vote requirement in effect denies the public its expectation of access to public education,' said the court, 'the two-thirds requirement must yield to the specific substantive educational right.'

This is an unprecedented and extreme ruling, which ignores fundamental principles of democratic government.

As a follow up story, this should come as no surprise to anyone.

LAS VEGAS — Gov. Kenny Guinn’s approval ratings have slipped 10 percent since the start of the legislative session in February, with less than half of Nevadans saying he is doing an excellent or good job, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal/reviewjournal.com poll published Saturday.

Update: The Wall Street Journal has an opinion on this issue:

In a state that has given us the quickie divorce, legalized prostitution and gambling, you'd think it would be hard to raise eyebrows. But compared to their Supreme Court, Nevada's sin industries are looking downright respectable. In a landmark 6-to-1 ruling Thursday, Nevada's justices came up with a real doozy: Essentially they ordered state legislators to violate the state constitution they have sworn to uphold.

We are in a lot of trouble here, folks; make no bones about it! The constitutional crisis that is developing in the judiciary could have ramifications far beyond taxes and marriage laws. The very pillars of our government and society are under assault. If balance is not restored, the foundations of this nation will crumble. The rule of law must triumph over the "rule of lawyers". If we continue to allow the courts of this nation to subvert the will of the people by countermanding the decisions of our duly elected representatives in this manner, we are through as a free nation.

Update: Eugene is pretty steamed about this too. The Volokh Conspiracy

:: Mark 10:01 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is an excerpt from President Bush's speech delivered last Tuesday on Goree Island. While it is not as forcefull as I might have wished, nor does it address the horrors of the present day slave trade, I hope that it inspires you to read the whole thing.

In America, enslaved Africans learned the story of the exodus from Egypt and set their own hearts on a promised land of freedom. Enslaved Africans discovered a suffering Savior and found he was more like themselves than their masters. Enslaved Africans heard the ringing promises of the Declaration of Independence and asked the self-evident question: Then why not me?
In the year of America's founding, a man named Olaudah Equiano was taken in bondage to the New World. He witnessed all of slavery's cruelties, the ruthless and the petty. He also saw beyond the slaveholding piety of the time to a higher standard of humanity. 'God tells us,' wrote Equiano, 'that the oppressor and the oppressed are both in His hands. And if these are not the poor, the broken-hearted, the blind, the captive, the bruised which our Savior speaks of, who are they?'
Down through the years, African-Americans have upheld the ideals of America by exposing laws and habits contradicting those ideals. The rights of African-Americans were not the gift of those in authority. Those rights were granted by the Author of Life, and regained by the persistence and courage of African Americans, themselves.

:: Mark 9:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Good reading in the OpinionJournal today as the editorial staff attempts to bring some clear, rational analysis back into the debate on Iraq. In response to the monotonous drone from the left side of the political isle and the media parrots under their spell about the "factual inacuracies" in the President's statements leading up to the war in Iraq, the Journal tries to set the record straight about who it is that actually sets US domestic and foreign policy and put the claim that Saddam may have been seeking uranium from Niger back into context.

The charge is that 16 of the words that President Bush uttered during his January State of the Union address may have been false. Here's what he said: 'The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' We say this 'may' be false, because in fact the British government continues to stand by this assertion even if the CIA does not. So what Mr. Bush said about what the British believe was true in January and is still true today.
Based on this non-lie, then, we are all supposed to believe that the entire case for going to war was false and that--precisely what? Other than calling for someone's head, and for a Congressional probe that would give free TV time to Democrats running for President, the critics don't seem to be demanding anything specific about policy. Do John Kerry and Joe Lieberman now regret their vote to allow Mr. Bush to go to war in Iraq?

:: Mark 9:40 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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You have to give Chirac credit for consistency. He has backed every brutal, oppresive regime that he can find. This article in the Telegraph lends weight to that argument.

President Jacques Chirac negotiated a secret deal to protect Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of Europe's worst atrocities since the Second World War, according to evidence submitted to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
M Chirac allegedly agreed to sabotage the extradition of Gen Mladic to face genocide charges for his role in the planned extermination of Bosnian Muslims, including the massacre of 7,000 men and boys in the UN safe haven of Srebrenica in July 1995.

The article continues:

The claim, dismissed as "hearsay" by Paris, was contained in the transcripts of a telephone conversation between the former Yugoslav president, Zoran Lilic, and the head of the Yugoslav armed forces in Belgrade.

They described Mr Lilic explaining in December 1995 that Gen Mladic would be safe from extradition after the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian conflict, even though he had already been indicted for war crimes.

"He will not be delivered to anyone from the tribunal. He has got the guarantee by Chirac and Slobodan [Milosevic]," said the transcript. "Accordingly, he has to deliver these men to us, if he wants to, or he should come with us and place the men at the place of his choice."

Scott has a fabulous take on this over at Scrappleface.com

:: Mark 10:46 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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A doc's gotta do what a doc's gotta do! CNN.com - Doctor performs brain surgery with store drill - Jul. 11, 2003

'We have no (neurosurgical) instruments at the hospital. ... He was dying, so I had no choice but to run to a hardware store to buy a drill and use the pliers that I fix my car with, of course after sterilizing them,' Cesar Venero told Reuters in a telephone interview.

:: Mark 9:35 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Highlighting the gross ignorance of the major media outlets would be a full-time job, but then how would you find the time to point out the stupidity of their sources and guests?WorldNetDaily: Media ignorance

On NBC's June 15 edition of 'Meet the Press,' Tim Russert interviewed retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who might be a presidential candidate in 2004. Clark criticized President Bush's tax cuts. That's OK, but Clark demonstrated gross ignorance when he said, 'I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. ... In other words, it's not only that the more you make, the more you give.'
Tim Russert, just as ignorant, passed over the statement.

The article goes on to point out the following:

It was not until the Abraham Lincoln administration that an income tax was imposed on Americans. Its stated purpose was to finance the war, but it took until 1872 for it to be repealed. During the Grover Cleveland administration, Congress enacted the Income Tax Act of 1894. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1895. It took the 16th Amendment (1913) to make permanent what the Framers feared – today's income tax.

:: Mark 5:47 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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More F.U.D. from the Global Warming Chicken Little Patrol:Hit and myth of global warming - The Washington Times: Commentary

A press release from the federally supported National Center for Atmospheric Research claims a 'New Look at Satellite Data Supports Global Warming Trend.' This claim is likely to be played out big by supporters of the Kyoto Protocol, who want to restrict drastically the use of energy.
But the NCAR result is based on the wishful thinking of well-known Global-Warming promoters rather than on solid science.

:: Mark 5:40 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Now this should inspire some interesting conversations at the office.The Contra Costa Times

'Males are, in many ways, parasites upon their partners,' Jones writes. 'Their interests are to persuade the other party to invest in reproduction, while doing as little as they can themselves. Like all vermin, from viruses to tapeworms, they force their reluctant landladies to adapt or to be overwhelmed.'

At least Maureen Dowd thinks that it's funny.

:: Mark 5:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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From the "People unclear on the concept" department:BBC NEWS | Middle East | Danes prepare for snow in Iraq

Denmark's troops in Iraq may dream of the frost of a Scandinavian winter on days when the temperature rises to a blistering 46 degrees.

:: Mark 5:30 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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This is unbelievable...The Courier-Mail: Students riot over cheating ban [10jul03]

MORE than 3000 students of 20 law colleges in the eastern Indian state of Orissa have boycotted their final university examination and demonstrated in protest against a ban on copying.

:: Mark 5:27 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Good help us all...The Japan Times Online

According to the facts surrounding the case as presented by investigators, the student abducted Tanemoto from the electronics shop at around 7:20 p.m. on July 1. He then took the local tram and threw the child from the garage roof at around 9:15 p.m

:: Mark 5:25 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Dinesh D'Souza rightly contends that the United States isn't all that bad.

Anti-Americanism from abroad would not be such a problem if Americans were united in standing up for their own country. But in this country itself, there are those who blame America for most of the evils in the world. On the political left, many fault the United States for a history of slavery, and for continuing inequality and racism. Even on the right, traditionally the home of patriotism, we hear influential figures say that America has become so decadent that we are 'slouching towards Gomorrah.'

:: Mark 1:53 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Please go read this on Armed Pilots on National Review Online

Unfortunately, the TSA appears to be full of old Secret Service bureaucrats who think like Ridge, and who can't stand of the idea of gun carrying by people who don't work for the government.

And then go call your congressman.

:: Mark 1:51 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Victor Davis Hanson has some great questions about Iraq on National Review Online.

What are we to make of the last four months? In 21 days at a cost of less than 200 fatalities, the United States military ended the 24-year reign of one of the most odious dictators in recent memory and freed their people. In response, here at home there were no mass victory parades in appreciation for our soldiers' proven bravery or public braggadocio about their own singular prowess. Some of our fighters, who in a moment of martial zeal had raised the flag of their country above the toppling statue of a horrific tyrant, were more likely chastised as undisciplined chauvinists rather than praised as enthusiastic patriots.

While I agree with his premise, and conclusions, I believe that we owe it to the American soldiers - past, present, and future - to remember them every day of the year...and to do so with the awe and respect that they so richly deserve.

:: Mark 1:45 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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