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Saturday, February 18, 2006
Re: The Sneering...
Posted by on 2.18.06 @ 7:28AM
John, Byron York, far from "sneering" at John Loftus, calls his judgement into question by reporting on his former investigations, publications, and opinions. Surely that's legitimate, and fact-based. Like this:
I first encountered (Loftus's) name in the fall of 2003, when I was working on a story about Bush hatred. I was looking at the people who claim that the Bush family got its wealth from financing the Nazis, and I discovered that one of the sacred texts of that particular worldview is a book, The Secret War Against the Jews, by the authors Mark Aarons and...John Loftus. In 1995, when the book appeared, Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman, who can reasonably be counted on to speak out against people who financed the Nazis, called it "so exaggerated, so scantily documented, so overwrought and convoluted in its presentation, that Loftus and Aarons render laughable their claim to offer 'a glimpse of the world as it really is.'"
One might guess that the Sun is not aware of Loftus' other work, but that would be incorrect. In January 2004, the paper published an article on those notorious MoveOn.org ad submissions that compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. The story included a quote from Loftus, who said the ads were basically accurate. "The Bushes played a significant role in bringing money into the Third Reich," Loftus told the paper. "They literally financed Hitler. It was all about the money. It wasn't about the ideology."
York, incidentally, was for years the star investigative reporter for this magazine, a stardom he deserved.
Saddam tapes: key words:
Posted by on 2.18.06 @ 2:12AM
First read through of material in the Bill Tierney slide show translation for the Saddam Hussein secret tapes at intelligencesummit.org yields dynamic and confounding material.
Saddam and his aides discuss the Iraq nuclear weapon program; they discuss "plasma" (which is part of hydrogen bomb science); they discuss "fission" bombs. These discussions appear to be after the year 2000. The translations are choppy, require much explanation and correlation, which Tierney does with bullet points and cross referencing with inspector material (he was an inspector before the 2003 invasion.)
Saddam and his aides also discuss asking the Russian, Brazilians and French for help with biologicals. They also discuss hidden missiles, hidden warheads. They discuss at length how to deceive the UN inspectors.
Much work to be done. Much to understand.
Remember, these are tapes that Saddam ordered made: they have been in the Coalition hands since April 2003. There may be thousands more hours of tapes.
See the intelligencesummit.org website now for the slide shows, the downloads of the Arabic.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 5:41PM
Media Matters says the Sunday shows lean right. The secret to the study: Their data counts a large percentage of guests as "neutrals." Anyone care to guess what that means?
Today on the Hugh Hewitt Show
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 3:37PM
I'm subbing for Hugh Hewitt again today. We're rocking along, with a lot of what the Prez said today, an interview with Attorney General Gonzales, and the Beltway Boys. Hope you can catch it.6-9 pm on the Salem Radio Network.
The Sneering at intelligencesummit.org
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 2:34PM
Source reports profound, long-term interest in the Saddam tapes from several major meda enterprises. The analysis of the Saddam tapes will go forward in the hands of translators, then in the hands of those who can correlate the tapes with the captured documents associated with DOCEX, then in the hands of the historians. It will be a long, century long, process; and the results will be relevant to the age and state and language in which the analysis is printed.
For now, it is important to speak to the political noise around the release of the tapes at intelligencesummit.org this weekend.
I read in the blog at the National Review, under the name of York, a peculiarly antique logic that sounds like a political sneer that because John Loftus, the organizing energy of intelligencesumit.org, is a potent partisan Florida (Boston born) Democrat who is outspoken in his opposition to President Bush, Vice President Cheney and more in the Bush Administration, therefore the release of the tapes at intelligencesummit.org requires "careful" assessment.
York writes: "Now, Loftus is on to the Saddam tapes. If the House committee is correct, the tapes are legitimate. But their release is sure to be accompanied by forceful commentary from John Loftus. In assessing that, you might want to be careful."
I agree it is sage advice to recommend "careful" assessment whenever dealing with raw intelligence documents, all the more so when the documents are the NSA authenticated voices of Saddam Hussein and his gangland crew.
I agree it is sage advice to recommend "careful" assessment whenever dealing with the work product of a political adversary who is connected to documents elsewhere that call into question the veracity of Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and associates.
I agree it is sage advice to recommend "careful" assessment of all who are associated with Loftus and intelligencesummit.org, including this writer, a long-time Loftus associate.
Care, caution, suspicion, skepticism, doubt, all good advice in the days and years that follow the release of the first of many Saddam tapes.
What I do not agree to is the coy, sudden, political sneer in
For the record, the tapes are translated by weapons inspector and Coalition agent and Loftus associate Bill Tierney, who will make a presentation of approximately 160 slides of his translated text, playing the Saddam or other voices alongside. Bill Tierney is also a bold, industrious veteran. I do not know his opinion of the Bush or Cheney service: do I need to know to Tierney's opinion of Bush and Cheney to assess his "forceful commentary"? Do you need to know my opinion of Bush or Cheney to assess my "forceful commentary"? What about my religion, or Loftus's religion, or Tierney's? What about are mobile phone call lists? Or is our loyalty to the Constitution the concern?
The tapes exist. The tapes are authenticated by the NSA courtesy of Hoekstra. The tapes are the facts.
Stalking the Veep
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 1:20PM
Hotline reports (free) that the White House press corps has learned its lesson from its coverage of the Cheney hunting accident over the weekend and this week. It needs to cover Cheney and his leisure excursions more. While Bush carries an organized press pool with him wherever he goes, Cheney's events are covered on a case-by-case basis and he doesn't suffer from a media watch on his house. Networks and newspapers are now talking about staking out the Naval Observatory and closely monitoring his movements.
That's the ticket. Just when you've gone overboard, turn it up a notch.
Turkey Not Chicken
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 12:29PM
Anyone would be remiss, incidentally, not to praise Turkey up to the moon for coming down against violent Islamism. I've already expressed words to that effect, elsewhere, on the C-Intifada -- but now Zaman Online splashes this gem, front page:
Turkey in efforts to contribute to the Middle East peace process hosted the victor of January 25th Palestinian elections, the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS).
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in line with international pressure made the suggestion "Give up violence, sit at the negotiation table with Israel for peace. Allow the peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel side by side as two independent states."
Note to State: re-fax Russia this particular memo.
MoJo News
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 12:07PM
Mother Jones has a story up detailing the political machinations Democrats in Washington undertook to sabotage the Senate primary campaign of Iraqi veteran Paul Hackett. It's an ugly story.
Most interesting, though, is the role Rep. Henry Waxman and his staff played in the destruction of Hackett: essentially killing off fundraising prospects for Hackett's campaign and touting current Rep. Sherrod Brown's candidacy.
Just as compelling is the role that Sens. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer played. Both heavily recruited Hackett, but then got nervous. It appears what made them sweat was the notion of having a real live Iraq war veteran on the Democrat ballot.
MoJo only hints at what we've reported, which is that Reid and Schumer and their minions inside the Democrat campaign establishment went out of their way to taint Hackett's credentials. They were instrumental in spreading rumors about Hackett's activities, and even after Hackett traveled to Washington and showed Reid photos upon which the rumors were based, Reid and his aides did nothing to tamp down the rumor mill in Ohio.
Hackett's exit was predicated not on bad poll numbers -- depending on who you talk to he was behind, but the numbers were highly volatile -- but a discomfort with having someone cut more from the cloth of Howard Dean than from men like Reid.
Howard Dean, by the way, was once again taken to the woodshed by Reid over the Democrat National Committee chairman's public statements admonishing his fellow party members for abandoning Hackett. Dean took the tonguelashing from Reid. But this is just the beginning of a long, drawn-out war.
Fatwah For Dollars
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 11:15AM
Danish cartoonists, this is your life -- worth $25,000 and a car. No indication of whether Pakistani "prayer leader" Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi will spring for an auto fresh off the lot. And why would he, when "a local jewelers' association" goes beyond the call of matching funds with their own blood money donation of a cool million?
This unreal barbarism has no need to sweat the details: the AP reports quite drily that no "representative of the association was available to confirm it had made the offer." Even better, "Qureshi did not name any cartoonist in his announcement. He did not appear aware that 12 different people had drawn the pictures" -- and who, indeed, need draw distinctions between individuals, when an a la carte jihad is at stake?
The BBC reports Qureshi's bounty as $125,000; Pakistan, as tens of thousands vent spleens, throws different hothead Hafiz Mohammed Saeed in the drunk-with-power tank. Details collide and contradict; news rushes on headlong. Where is the terminus of the Cartoon Intifada? What dervish of fate whirls its way toward Bethlehem? Is this how "events spiral out of control?" The real possibilities of chaos unleashed by Iraq appear in porcelain miniature compared to the garish grotesque of the future. Dangerous times indeed, when Russia and Pakistan are the keys to international peace and security.
Noonan's Noodling
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 10:51AM
This isn't the first time Peggy Noonan has written an odd column. Recall that after the funeral of Ronald Reagan, she used the Wall Street Journal to write a bitter screed that served as payback to former White House and Presidential speechwriting colleagues for real and imagined slights.
Quite a few presidential speechwriters over the years have used media opportunities to burnish their own images, but Noonan is perhaps the most aggressive at it. Word in the White House is that while she may have helped the Bush campaign, she has very little contact with current White House staff, and they question her sources and access.
Saddam tapes; nukes, DNI, patience, much more
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 10:13AM
Best source on translation of Saddam tapes to be played and analyzed at
DNI Negroponte remarks of the intelligencesummit.org tapes, nothing new: yet DNI does not have a translation of the material to comment upon: DNI is either guessing or spinning or both: and DNI shows a peculiar impatience to reach a conclusion that DNI has not earned. Regret to observe the lack of translators and focus in USG.
I am recommending patience. These are early days. Arabic speakers will now get hold of the first available material and start to pull it apart.
More coming soon, this weekend, in major media. Transcripts, pull quotes, scary details.
Much more coming. Do not choose sides. Wait, listen, study.
Peggy's Ripples
Posted by on 2.17.06 @ 9:51AM
The problem with Peggy Noonan's bizarre, rambling column yesterday is that when she floats the idea of Cheney's ouster in the Wall Street Journal, it's not just one woman's ramblings in a local paper. Her idle, factless speculation rests on her laurels and the reputation of her publication. And to at least the left and the media, if not the rest of the country, that counts for a great deal. So it's no surprise that Howie Kurtz leads with her column today:
What did surprise me was this Peggy Noonan column in the Wall Street Journal. She, after all, is a former Reagan and Bush White House speechwriter who took a leave in 2004 to work for the president's reelection. But here she is putting into play the question of not only whether Cheney is damaged goods but whether he might have to pack his bags...
There it is. Her reputation. Her newspaper. Her Bush-fawning credentials. "See! Even Peggy Noonan thinks Cheney's time could be up." Her column will have shelf-life, not because it was of any particularly high quality, but because she's a person in the right-wing category (yes, debatable, I know) who has said it. And the press will gleefully repeat her inanity.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Re: Stretching the Definition
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 5:58PM
Bloomberg scoffed yesterday in response to that New York Observer article. The AP reporter writes that the Observer's primary source "enjoys winking at the rumor as one of his favorite reporter-torturing devices."
Orange Necktie Day
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 3:07PM
I hereby declare tomorrow Orange Necktie Day. Every guy who wants to show his support for the Veep should wear an orange (preferably "target orange") necktie. This doesn't exclude you, ladies. Orange scarves are in order.
Re: Stretching the Definition
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 2:50PM
John, The best part is Bloomberg's aide's comment to the reporter, "Still not ready to discuss the strategy for the early primary states." There's several carts before horses here: you need an overall strategy before you have one for early primary states; you have to be a serious candidate to have an overall strategy; your candidacy needs a snowball's chance in hell before you're a serious candidate. Of course, these points are all debatable, but suffice it to say this Sheekey's way out ahead of himself. If Bloomberg ever wants to have a chance or gets serious, he might consider getting rid of his deputy mayor.
Stretching the Definition of "Sane"
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 1:58PM
Every once in a while you get a glimpse of how remarkably out of touch New York City's elites can be with national politics. The latest example: presidential buzz for Nurse Bloomberg, stoked by a longtime aide. Lunacy.
Yeah, We Totally Hang Out all the Time!
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 1:35PM
Jack Abramoff was reportedly fond of boasting about his ties to Karl Rove. Noam Scheiber, no friend of the Bush administration, is appropriately skeptical when it comes to Abramoff's word.
Such a Winter's Day
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 1:19PM
The best part of being away from Washington is being away from Washington. Here in Santa Barbara I learn of problems even the White House press corps wouldn't blame on Dick Cheney. There is movement afoot in northern Santa Barbara County to split off and form a new (Mission) county. Or at least to relocate major county offices to Santa Maria, which, ever since the Michael Jackson trial and a housing boom fueled by prices more affordable than Santa Barbara's highest in the nation, is feeling its oats and no longer wants to be seen as a country backwater.
Meanwhile, Santa Barbara proper's most pressing problem at the moment seems to be the unviting state of the sidewalk along West Beach from Stearns Wharf to the harbor. Tourists are said to find it uninviting. The city council has just passed a $2 million improvement plan. I don't think it will do any good. Already fifty years ago I knew that West Beach could never compete with East Beach. The former is not a swimming beach. It has no surf but looks out at a harbor entrance, a breakwater, a launch area, and boats docked inside the marina. The latter, by contrast, offers a real beach, waves, and full ocean view. A day at the harbor is no match for a day at the beach.
A cold snap has hit the city. Today the high may not even top 60 degrees F., though the sun is shining brightly and there's not a cloud in the cowboy winter sky.
Re: Reboot Peggy
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 1:12PM
That's one weird column. The hypothetical Cheney replacement "would have to be a man wildly popular in the party and the press," says Noonan. She punts on naming a name, naturally, since approximately no one is "wildly popular" with the GOP base and with our esteemed press corps. So what was her point, again?
Post-Muslims, Post-Iraq
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 1:10PM
Batchelor on Mad Max Ahmadinejad calls to light a prophetic (1987) presumption belonging to Philip Rieff, king of sociologists with whom you should all get quickly acquainted:
"I persist [he wrote] in thinking, until better informed, that even Islamic jihadists are really therapeutic ideologists, who, like the Irish Catholic terrorists of the IRA, mobilize backward masses to gain power any man in good faith may live to regret."
Rieff calls these "post-Muslims." Iraq/Iran is the present deviant version of the Nazi/Soviet armageddon -- deviant in that the Ba'athism of Iraq was not post-Muslim but specifically un-Muslim in its secular devotion to power, whereas both Nazis and Soviets were something other than merely secular. Such is the Iranian regime, now, too. Saddam could never be pan-Islamic -- he couldn't even accomplish pan-Arabism, as the invasion of Kuwait proved well enough to all. But MM Ahmadinejad's is an utterly Islam-raping faith -- subjecting the religion into a predicate of power. For some reason the arrival of the Twelfth Imam must be prepared by a panther feast of blood.
In this way MMA illustrates how vast is the ugly difference between this present crisis and the Iraqi. Iraq was a truly isolate, truly singular nation and case -- thumbed down by international law, hamstrung by a record of huge failures and kicked-over subterfuges, without allies and without the sheerness of size, population, and topographical leverage God has granted Iran.
Once again: without allies, alone. We could conduct neoconservatism in a petri dish in Iraq, for good and for ill: even the leakage now of jihadists from Syria drips rarely from the tap. The meniscus bends but holds. Now consider Iran -- reaching tentacles around Israel, recruiting serviceable Syria for chamberpot/bagman duty, accumulating audibles on offense and defense from Hormuz to Iraq to the Cartoon Diaspora. Calling all guards: the C-Intifada registered in the Great Crescent a Threat Level upgrade to Orange. Behold sheer possibility. Confronting Iran -- and its gnarled attendants -- will be utterly different than confronting Iraq, utterly more difficult, and -- saving grace -- ultimately more popular among the more populous afraid.
The Journalism Paycheck Wars
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 12:43PM
Aren't over by any means. Iain Murray defended the practice "in our pages" a couple weeks ago, writing that pundits' arguments should be challenged, not their paymasters. One pundit accused of "payola," longtime TAS contributor Michael Fumento, fires back at mainstream media journalists engaged in very similar activity.
Another Socialized Medicine Success Story
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 11:25AM
Britain's National Health Service withholds expensive cancer-treating drugs, depending on where the patient lives.
Anger and the Dems without compassion
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 10:44AM
Academic source identifies a fresh way to look at the extremes of political discourse. A speaker who identifies himself or herself as angry at the opposition, very very angry, who consistently takes far far positions with regard political disputes, this same person shows surprisingly little compassion for other human beings. This does not mean only that he or she only demonstrates little compassion for his or her opponent in a dispute, debate, political season; this means he or she demonstrates little compassion for any human being at any time.
The more stridnet the op, the less compassionate the op, the less charitable, the less generous, the less altruistic, philanthropic, empathetic, sympathetic.
Transating this to immediate debates: suggests that the extreme positions now taken by leadership of the Dems, such as Dean, Kennedy, Pelosi, and so forth, represents an anger that is without compassion in all directions. It could mean that the Dem leadership is now trapped in a worldview that cannot think grandly or freshly about the troubles of the planet. Loving the unlovable -- a measure of compassion -- may be out of reach of the Bush-haters and Cheney-revilers.
Puzzle.
Reboot Peggy
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 10:30AM
Sadly, the most intelligent (and desperately original) thing Peggy Noonan has to say about the Cheney hunting accident is to liken the White House to a frozen computer screen (hence the clever column title, "Hit Refresh?") and to speculate that "one night over drinks at a barbecue in McLean one top guy will turn to another top guy" and suggest that Dick Cheney's time as Vice President may be up. Of course, Noonan writes this in her insidery "this-is-what-folks-are-thinking-but-I've-covered-myself-by-hypothetically-framing-it" style. Cute. Back in reality, Cheney's one of the only tethers between this White House and economic conservatism. Who cares if he's a "hate magnet" (is that a technical term, Ms. Noonan?)? Usually, that's a sign that the other side is frustrated with your success. Sure, Cheney has his PR baggage. But what would you rather do: carry a little PR baggage (suffering mostly the White House/Washington press corps) or scuttle the baggage and with it any sense of a free market, small government philosophy? PR Peggy would probably take the form over substance. I'll take Cheney.
The Press Corps So Distracted Me Yesterday
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 8:59AM
That I forgot to note that pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. Ah, spring is in the air.
West Nile on Saddam tapes???
Posted by on 2.16.06 @ 2:12AM
Fresh clue, unconfirmed, but connects to intel from best signals source. On the Saddam tapes, word used for plague, as in, how do we send a plague against the USA?? Word used is plague in Arabic, but it is the same word used in other source that Saddam Hussein regime connects with its West Nile Virus development, 1997-1999. Moved labs and equipment to Sudan in 1999.
Not confirmed. Not confirmed. Not. This is all analysis. Early days.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Ahmadinejad Missing Days: Apocalypse Now
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 10:13PM
Best signals source says that Ahmadinejad's missing ten days in late January early February can now be explained by his busy, Ernst Blofeld schedule.
The first several days Ahmadinejad was participating in a national exercise to rehearse air defense and national deployment in the event (and it is expected sooner rather than later) of the strategic strike by US and Israeli air and special operations power.
After that, Ahmadinejad toured coastal fortresses to inspect the offensive missile and seaborne power (cruise missiles, ground to ground medium range stuff) to strike at shipping in the Straits of Hormuz and also at the major oil fields in eastern Arabia.
Ahmadinejad and the IRGC leadership and the Council of Elders are of one mind that the US and Israel will attack (sooner rather than later). The Tehran regime will not wait to be attacked. It is most likely that the Tehran regime will attack first, using proxies in Syria, in Lebanon, in Gaza, directed against Israel to force the US to respond piecemeal and hastily.
The timeline is less than one year. There is a casus belli in the Iranian nuclear weapons program; yet there is also a casus belli in the intention of the Iranians to open a euro-based oil bourse in Tehran on March 1. This encourages those who would gain favor with the mullahs (and cheap oil) to dump their dollars.
Bumpy road. Gonna be. Seat belts. Hold on.
Cheney's Misfire
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 7:37PM
Having spent hundreds of hours afield in pursuit of quail, pheasant, chuckar, ducks and geese, I sympathize with the Veep. He's made a bad mistake that we all hope won't prove fatal to his hunting pal. But that's all there is to it. Or would be, but for the fragile egos of the White House press gaggle.
Were it up to them, Cheney would have been dialing Tim Russert's home number before poor Whittington hit the ground. The arrogance of the White House knows no bounds. How dare they give the story -- indirectly, at that -- to a local paper and not CBS or the NYT? How could they not issue a press release? Shouldn't the pool reporter have been in the ambulance with Ol' Harry?
The fact that this story has ridden the front page for so long is a testament to the press's narcissism, and nothing else. It's not yet fair to compare their outrage to Muslims rioting over the Mohammed cartoons. Yet.
Many Saddam Tapes Still Untranslated
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 7:19PM
Important to note that Brian Ross tonight on Nightline will stipulate that the Saddam tapes that intelligencesummit.org gave ABC News are just a small part of the assembled tape recordings of Saddam Hussein cabinet/staff meetings over many years. Also Brian Ross stipulates that the remaining available tapes are still undergoing translation.
This is a careful if general way of communcating that these are the early days of revelations from the tapes. Hoekstra doesn't know what's on them, ABC News doesn't know, neither -- to my certainty -- does DNI, CIA, DIA, FBI or any of the dozens of most concerned intelligence services from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the variety of Arab League states.
In sum, the tapes contain unknown material that may threaten present regimes. May. Threaten. Present.
Reigniting the Fire
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 6:21PM
Cheney on Hume's show: "They didn't like that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of the New York Times." Priceless, and right on target. Good for him. And now the story will last for another couple days.
No Crayons for Moussaoui
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 6:19PM
Convicted Al Qaeda poster boy Zacarias Moussaoui was removed from the jury selection proceedings for the death penalty phase of his trial yesterday in Virginia for several outbursts including the following renunciation of his French citizenship: "I'm not French...I stand here as a Muslim only. I do not stand here with a nation of homosexual crusaders." Whoa! Incarceration apparently takes a toll on the radical Muslim's inclination towards tolerance and inclusiveness. Well, one supposes as long as he doesn't draw cartoons depicting the likeness of these crusaders civic peace will be maintained and the Log Cabin Republicans will not be forced to burn down the Morrocan embassy. There are, of course, certain standards of decency that must be observed. Bad terrorist! No crayons for you!
Re: Yeah, Just Like Chappaquiddick
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 2:25PM
Dave, interesting this Washington Post editorial page mention by David Ignatius of Chappaquiddick, one of not even a handful of (passing) mentions over the last few decades on the Post's editorial page (almost all of which regarded it, like David Broder in 2003, as nothing more than an "accident"; in 1993 Howard Kurtz termed it an "incident"; only Richard Cohen, in 1991, called it a "coverup").
If anything, Ignatius blurted out the truth that dare not speak its name. The liberal media culture has covered for Ted Kennedy since 1969. It has been complicit in his shamelessness. Now it wants to tar Dick Cheney with the Chappaquiddick brush? As one of its therapists might advise, you don't want to go there!
Cheney Speaks, Press Still Bitter
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 2:19PM
I just caught the ABC News top of the hour report on the radio: White House correspondent Ann Compton couldn't resist pointing out that while Cheney is speaking to the press, it's only one interview and not with a member of the White House press corps. They won't be satisfied until he gives a press conference.
Asbestos Bill Slain
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 12:22PM
By a filibuster, at least for now. I understand the temptation to take these settlements out of the hands of the trial lawyers, but the asbestos bill would have been more surrender than victory. As detailed by Human Events last week, it would have removed asbestos claims from the courts into a no-fault administrative process. Private companies would then "contribute" (involuntarily) to the trust fund.
The Heritage Foundation has found many flaws with the bill: claimants would show asbestos exposure "merely by filing an affidavit saying that they have been exposed'; the trust fund would award settlements to patients whose types of cancer "have not been clearly shown to be related to asbestos exposure"; and claims are automatically paid to claimants if they are not decided within 180 days. With such loose controls, $140 billion may not be enough to fund this trust fund.
These suits belong in the courts, not at the hands of a new bureaucracy. If trial lawyers are the problem, then we need tort reform, not a shift in jurisdiction.
Yeah, Just Like Chappaquiddick
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 11:48AM
David Ignatius goes for broke and takes the media tantrum over the Cheney hunting accident to new heights today.
Nobody died at Armstrong Ranch, but this incident reminds me a bit of Sen. Edward Kennedy's delay in informing Massachusetts authorities about his role in the fatal automobile accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969. That story, and dozens of others about the Kennedy family, illustrates how wealthy, powerful people can behave as if they are above the law. For my generation, the fall of Richard Nixon is the ultimate allegory about how power can corrupt and destroy. It begins not with venality but with a sense of God-given mission.
Ignatius really should have left out the Nixon link -- it gave away his motive as singing of the press's glory days. Ah, when we took down a national official who disdained us. If anyone here has the "sense of God-given mission," it's today's arrogant press corps.
But Chappaquiddick? Seriously? Let us list the differences:
1- Mr. Ignatius provides the first point on this list: no one died at the Armstrong Ranch. This isn't a slight concession. Let's say it again: no one died. Hopefully Mr. Whittington is okay and there are no further complications, but I think it's safe to say that the extent of his injuries and Mary Jo Kopechne's are vastly different.
2- Vice President Cheney didn't leave Mr. Whittington for dead. Secret Service medical personnel immediately treated him and then he was transported to the hospital within an hour (see timeline). Sen. Kennedy sat on the bank of the Poucha Pond for a "15 to 20" minutes, then walked back to the location of the party, was told he should report the accident, but instead went back to his hotel and hit the hay.
3- Vice President Cheney didn't wait until the next day to contact police after consulting with his lawyer, family, and political advisor (in Sen. Kennedy's case, Ted Sorensen). See FBI file here.
Really, the only party Cheney delayed contacting was the White House press corps. Cheney's victim was quickly treated, and the proper legal authorities were notified. Sen. Kennedy's victim was trapped in the car, possibly still alive and breathing off of air pockets while he slept off his rum and Cokes. Mr. Ignatius, Cheney's hunting accident isn't like Chappaquiddick at all.
UPDATE: A friend adds, "If it's just like
Chappaquiddick, then Cheney should get a pass."
Playing Pelosi
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 11:21AM
So how tenuous is Rep. Nancy Pelosi's hold on the House minority leader position? Right now it's unclear. But plenty of members of her caucus want her out sooner rather than later.
Word up on Capitol Hill is that there have been a few folks nosing around out in California and elsewhere, researching the business transactions and investments made by husband, Paul, and they aren't Republican opposition research types.
Recall that Democrat National Committee sources have said that their boss, Howard Dean, had extensive research done on Sen. Harry Reid's ties to lobbying. Could it be he and some of the others on the far left are now looking to help Pelosi out of her leadership post too?
The Muhammad Bomb T-Shirt
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 11:11AM
Hark -- a line is being crossed in the printing-up of the M-Bomb cartoon on t-shirts available, not free, to all. One of the drawbacks, as Spectator readers know full well, of being a "South Park Conservative" is a chronic lack of taste, and the conservative outfit who has turned a free-press issue into an immeasurably less noble one does us all a disservice by doing so.
I have been among those sticking up firmly for the right of the Europeans and others to print the cartoons right in the face of vicious and aggravated blackmail threats of damage and kidnapping. I see no need and feel no desire to extend this cultural endorsement to a guy (I'm sure he's a dude) looking to get rich quick on the mortal issue of the liberty of political speech. Thoughts freely expressed in full here.
Eating Their Own
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 11:00AM
Never mind that Sen. Chuck Schumer and his pals on the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee stuck a shiv in the back of Democrat Ohio Senate candidate Paul Hackett.
Or that Democrat Party Chairman Howard Dean is trying to do the same to Democrat Minority Leader Harry Reid.
Or that Rep. Steny Hoyer is conspiring to help fellow Democrats in the House to throw leader Nancy Pelosi over the side sooner than she would prefer.
Democrats are going after their own all over Washington at a surprising clip. In fact, the only Democrat who seems to be focusing on the team is Reid, who, according to Las Vegas sources we speak to, has been telling business leaders there that Republican incumbent Sen. John Ensign is in big trouble politically. Reid has been pushing businesses to fall in line behind his party's candidate, a Jimmy Carter chip off the old block.
Chinese lies; GOOG apologizes
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 10:41AM
The hired apologists for GOOG and YHOO and MSFT cannot and will not explain why they are doing business with Chinese bullies and torturers; however, it is worth while to hammer the masters of the internet when they try to rationalize their blind greed.
Note the lies that the PRC puts out: "Chinese state media quoted one official today as defending the controls, saying that they block only a 'very few' sites, mostly involving pornography or terrorism."
This is a lie, this is a lie times ten, and the apologists for GOOG and YHOO and MSFT know it's a lie. Let the trio tell Congress and the American people that this is a lie: then we can begin again with candor.
Chinese people mark their destroyers: GOOG
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 2:24AM
Note to Google and Yahoo and MSFT and kindred of Cain appeasers in Silly Valley and other virtual palaces: the Chinese people will mark their destroyers and punish them in time; the Chinese people will remember longer than the lot of you that they have options to exercise. The IBM that cooperated with the National Socialists in the 1930s is back again, new name, same reptilian vision for profit, same preening tech mastery of betrayal.
GOOG: Think ahead.
Chinese internet secret police in US
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 1:11AM
Spectacular report from Forbes Magazine source on the 40,000 internet police in China: several new software designers have bested and defeated the goons. One called "Tor" constructs an underground railway of virtual tunnels that makes it exhausting and expensive to follow a user in China who dials out to the free world. Another called "Psiphon" creates a proxy system (if I understand correctly) that is closed to the outside but open to members of a family both inside and outside China.
Critical news is that Falun Gang is most active and skilled on the internet, recruiting Chinese Communist Party members who reject the Party online once they learn the facts of the brutality of their masters toward the spiritually hungry and long-suffering Falun Gong members. To renounce the Party is sensational heresy in China. The leading province for renouncing Chinese Communist members is Heilungjiang, on the Russian border, where a recent chemical factory fire caused a poisoning of the Songhua River: importantly, the local Party members are enraged that Beijing permitted the province leadership to lie about the spill.
Darkest moment is to learn tonight that Korean and Chinese thugs broke in on and abused a Falun Gong Chinese exile in the state of Georgia, USA, in the last few days: one attacker spoke Mandarin. The only thing stolen was the Falun Gong Chinese exile's computer with information about his contacts inside China and in the diasapora. I repeat: the suspicion is that this is the work of Chinese agents acting inside the United States. Congress is holding hearings within the next news cycle: perhaps the Georgia victim will testify, perhaps the story will begin to grow.
Emphasize that Chinese thugs are operating in the United States to crush the Falun Gong inside Georgia.
Mention that the putative Commies in Beijing might be too weak and stupid to resist the wrath and freedom fighting of the internet 110 millions in China.
More Saddam Tapes: creepiness
Posted by on 2.15.06 @ 12:06AM
More Saddam tapes from intelligencesummit.org: ABC News will preview again Wed 15 on World News Tonight, and then will present special broadcast of Nightline with Brian Ross at 11 pm eastern, Wed 15, on the Saddam tapes -- approximately 12 hours of outtakes of Saddam Hussein's meetings over many years about WMD and so forth horrors with his own cabinet and staff.
Saddam "Chin" Hussein -- the Vinnie "Chin" Gigante-like figure strolling Koran in hand into his own trial in Baghdad -- ordered these tapes made to record his genius over many years to deny and deceive the UN inspectors looking for WMD in Iraq.
Revelations include discussion of a WMD attack on the United States sometime in the late 90s.
Revelations include calling on the expertise of a prominent member state of the UN Security Council in order to conceal WMD and weapons systems.
Revelations include discussions of assassination plots against prominent world leaders, none of whom will enjoy hearing his or her name mentioned once the tapes are played.
Revelations include a nightmare scenario that will not surprise readers of AmSpecBlog.
There is much more on the way, from all levels of major media. And a note to those who think the Bush Administration is large and in charge: there is good reason to believe that the White House political team does not know the contents of these tapes -- and that critical congressional commitees do not know the contents. Not yet. These translations are first-time-ever from an idiomatic Tikriti-flavored Arabic to American English.
And the ummah internet crowd around the world will download and listen to the threats and boasts of a monster and puzzle how the ummah could have been fooled accidentally on purpose for so long.
Saddam "Chin" Hussein is a shrinking creep now; once he was a dangerous creep.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Attn: David Horowitz
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 7:10PM
Back in my hometown I learn from my local News-Press that for a sleepy town Santa Barbara remains on the cutting edge. Where elsewhere you read about conservative college students complaining about the liberal bias of their professors, here the conservative griping begins in high school.
"I am a conservative student attending Santa Barbara High School," Tyler McManigal writes in a letter to the editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press, "and it is no secret to me or any other students that the greater majority of teachers are liberal.
"Conservative students always find themselves having to defend their political views in the classroom because they are challenged by these liberal teachers, who give their one-sided political views and anti-Bush statements."
Because conservative students, who "may be the minority view in high school," are forever having to defend their political views, there is fortunately a golden lining, young Tyler writes:
"[B]ecause we have to constantly defend our political views, conservative students are forced to be more aware of and familiar with current events.
"Thus, the liberal environment of the classroom we learn in helps to secure our conservative views and only further makes this minority of students the more educated on the latest current events. Liberal teachers are only doing us a favor, so I say, thank you."
Extra Credit
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 6:48PM
The new President of Bolivia is a coca farmer. Now, his Administration is proposing to include coca leaves on the menu for Bolivia's school kids, because the leaves are so nutritious!
Film Dud
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 6:38PM
So Star Wars creator George Lucas was up on Capitol Hill today with Rep. Nancy Pelosi today talking about the Democrat Party's "Innovation Initiative."
There is nothing to it. It offers private businesses and innovators nothing in the way of financial incentives to invest in things like high-tech R & D, broadband, manufacturing, or educational programs targeting engineers or science.
What struck us was Lucas's statement that Pelosi had basically been begging him for money for years. But a database check at OpenSecrets.org doesn't indicate that Lucas has been a huge donor to Pelosi or anyone else in the Democrat Party.
Surely the Democrats could have found someone with a better pedigree for giving to their causes.
Vets Needn't Apply
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 3:22PM
Iraq war vet Paul Hackett's surprise withdrawal from the race for the Dem Senate nomination to run against Ohio's Mike DeWine comes as a shock to the other vets being recruited by the Dems. According to several reports, Hackett's candidacy was propelled, in part, by Sen. Schumer's promise that he'd not have to worry about campaign funding. And then hitherto invisible Cong. Sherrod Brown pops up, and says he wants to run. So what's the reaction from the Dems? Little Miss Gun Control drops Hackett like a hot rock and works hard to cut off his funding. Why shouldn't vets believe this is just another symptom of the Democrat disease?
And Then the Joking Stopped
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 2:40PM
Harry Whittington, the man accidentally shot by the Vice President, has suffered what is being described as a "minor" heart attack.
The David Gregory Show
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 12:41PM
The NBC correspondent's on his high horse about White House disclosure of the hunting accident. He's not playing inquisitive reporter anymore, but conducting himself like a prosecutor in cross examination. This is quickly descending into Gregory whining.
Batman Goes To War
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 11:52AM
Comic-book legend Frank Miller has announced that his next book, Holy Terror, Batman!, is "a piece of propoganda" where Batman goes after al Qaeda:
The reason for this work, Miller said, was "an explosion from my gut reaction of what's happening now." He can't stand entertainers who lack the moxie of their '40s counterparts who stood up to Hitler. Holy Terror is "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against."That's a refreshing change from the anti-war Superman that appeared a few years ago.It's been a long time since heroes were used in comics as pure propaganda. As Miller reminded, "Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for."
Re: WMD, Hamas and Western Will
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 11:20AM
James: I agree. We need to be vastly more clear in our opposition to government participation by terrorists. One of the troubling things I heard in Iraq in December was several of our top commanders talking about a "Sinn Fein" solution to the insurgency. Letting them become part of the government can only be done after the terrorists have renounced violence and turned in their weapons, not before.
I do have one large bone to pick with you: "contextualize"??? ARRRRRRRRGH. I hereby propose that anyone who takes a perfectly innocent noun and turns it into a verb by adding "ize" should be lashed publicly or at least locked in the stocks to be pummelled with vegetables.
Bethell on Government Objectivity
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 11:11AM
TAS senior editor Tom Bethell had a piece in the Washington Times Sunday on the fallacy that government-funded science is pure. He specifically takes on NASA scientist and global warming booster James Hansen. Don't miss it.
WMD, Hamas, and the Western Will
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 11:02AM
How will the Saddam tapes contextualize the apparent U.S.-Israeli decision to sink Hamas? Having scored a stunning Victory for Democracy in Palestine, the administration now finds itself working to junk the outcome and declare, Harriet Miers-style, a do-over. Machiavellan phantoms whispered once that HM was the perfect sacrificial lamb, the fall girl who made for unmatchable cannon fodder and the trailblazer for Sam Alito. May we detect the same manufactured blunder here? On the warpath against tyranny in this world, is "freedom" itself a manipulable tool, and democracy-hypocrisy a deployable means to a realpolitikal end?
Battle lines are forming. It is easier now more than ever for Us or Them to establish complicities: if the tapes are a bombshell, Hamas looks more like another ticking bomb. A WMD surprise means the clock of logic is reset; cheating Hamas out of a free and fair election appears as an imperative, not an embarrassment. Hamas becomes a weapon of mass destruction. The narrative goes from democracy to necessity.
Western gumption to accomplish this unforgiving volte-face is measured against the index of faith in identity that surged in response to the Cartoon Intifada. The question of the authority of the cultural identity of the West afflicts Left as well as Right. Pat Buchanan now appears to relate to the beheaders, and writers in the New Left Review raise sharp rejoinders? What the devil is going on here?
A Wealth of Material
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 11:00AM
The New York Times lists the beneficiaries of the Cheney story:
The incident provided a wealth of material for Democrats, gun control activists and critics of the Bush administration, not to mention late-night comedians.
The White House press corps fits into the first three categories.
Hackett Out
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 10:55AM
Paul Hackett, the liberal Democrat who lost Ohio's second Congressional district to Rep. Jean Schmidt in the special election, has dropped out of the Democratic primary for the Senate. He claims Chuck Schumer pushed him out to allow Sherrod Brown a clear path to the nomination, but Schumer's spokesman says Hackett's decision was his own.
Hackett's base is mixed about the news: Kos is ambivalent, but some of his readers aren't having it.
More Saddam Tapes
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 10:37AM
More with regard the Saddam tapes that are available in translation on Sat 18 February from intelligencesummit.org: there is much more on the recordings of Saddam's scheming to constitute CBW. Best source points to four areas of discussion, in Saddam's voice with thirty or forty of his best kindred of Cain: 1. How we fooled and will fool as long as necessary the stupid UN teams under Blix and ElBaradei. 2. How we can hide the missiles that have warheads on them. 3. How we can ask the Russians for advice to hide the worst of the stuff. 4. How we are going to attack America with WMD.
Other concepts that may be on the tapes (remember these are best of; somewhere there are the originals to be translated and released): anthrax may be mentioned, nuclear weapons may be mentioned, fooling the US over many years may be mentioned, friends of Saddam may be mentioned.
I have not heard the tapes. I will put them on air next week, with translations. I am keen to hear how Saddam discussed attacking America. Did he mention using anthrax???
Saddam Had No WMD -- Not
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 10:09AM
Am told by two sources that Brian Ross of ABC News was on air in Washington, WMAL, this morning to confirm that the Saddam Hussein tapes of many conversations from 1988 to 2002 with his staff and ministers and generals is an authentic tape (it is actually a best of many tapes) -- and that the recordings confirm in Saddam Hussein's voice his intention and capability to reconstitute his CBW programs.
Much more information coming from Intelligencesummit.org this weekend, especially the release of the transcripts on Saturday, 18 February at 8 a.m. at Crystal City in Virginia.
The crowd that lives on "Saddam had no WMD" is about to get a new brain twister to play with: "Well, he wanted WMD, and he had WMD at one time, and he really was tricky, but he had no WMD at some point, or why would he discuss getting back the WMD he had???"
Blowback
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 9:25AM
Sitting in the White House press room yesterday, the most interesting dynamic was watching the TV pretty people down front mugging for the camera. But the more important to the hectoring and lecturing going on by the media, was the talk of the TV and big-media types before the cameras went on and Scott McClellan took the podium.
What really cheeses these guys off isn't so much that the White House didn't tell them. It's that a private citizen gave the story first to a local reporter down in Texas. Again and again, we kept hearing something along the lines of, "I can't believe a local paper got it first."
There is a sense of betrayal that the White House actually expected reporters who cover the President and Vice President to get a story on their own. They are so used to have it spoon-fed to them, either through press release, pool report or illegal leak.
Happy St. Valentine's Day
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 7:57AM
No, today isn't for Eve Ensler to vulgarize. It's the feast day of a martyred bishop of the third century. The day's special consecration to lovers came later, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a very reliable source in my experience. The History Channel's account, which is suspiciously saccharine (maybe because it credits American Greetings, the card company), cites a legend that St. Valentine married soldiers to their loves in defiance of the emperor and even wrote the first valentine. One "lives of the saints"-style account has him as a priest assisting persecuted Christians. And another agrees that he wrote the first valentine, but that it was a note to his daughter on the eve of his martyrdom.
Full CPAC Straw Poll Results
Posted by on 2.14.06 @ 7:41AM
Over at Hotline On Call. Interesting to see Bill Frist edging out Mitt Romney among the single-digit crowd. The CW, holding that Frist's decidedly mixed performance as Majority Leader makes him damaged presidential goods, still seems right. But juding from how Frist answered when I asked him about his presidential aspirations last week -- you can listen here -- I'd say he's still seriously considering a run.
UPDATE: Rob Bluey has the results for the Democratic nomination, too. Mark Warner is the only one besides Hillary to crack double digits in CPAC-goers' predictions. This seems right, as Warner's ability to court different parts of the Democratic coalition simultaneously is likely to make him Hillary's strongest competition.
Monday, February 13, 2006
The AMMP Whines Foul
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 7:27PM
That's the American Mainstream Media Party, a term coined by Newsweek's Howard Fineman and a notion reiterated by the WSJ's James Taranto in our pages this month.
This is not just a matter of "liberal bias." When it comes to matters of war and scandal, journalists see themselves playing a role that is not impartial but adversarial vis-à-vis the government. But the media's adversarial culture asserts itself far more strongly when a Republican is in the White House.
The AMMP's coverage of the Cheney hunting accident has veered -- quickly, in less than a day -- into the absurd.
Take this Reuters dispatch: "White House takes heat over Cheney shooting mishap." Heat from whom? The press corps, of course! It's a unique pressure group, a lobby for truth, freedom, openness, and the American way. At least that's how they regard themselves. That self-regard is painfully evident in the direction this story is taking: some are reporting on the victim, some on Cheney's hunting manners or abilities, some on hunters' safety guidelines, but most are focused on why the White House delayed telling... the press corps. The press corps is reporting on its own gripe. Sheesh.
The sour grapes can't be hidden within the Reuters story. Reporter Patricia Wilson, in explaining the White House's account for the delay, writes that Cheney and the ranch owner, Katherine Armstrong, agreed that she would release information on the accident, since it happened on her ranch.
Armstrong said it wasn't until Sunday that she telephoned the [
Corpus Christi] Caller-Times. She didn't notify the national media or the White House press corps.
Translation: She didn't call us! We're the first call after 911! And when she did call, she called the local paper. Might as well call the Keystone Kops to defuse a bomb.
For the rest of the world, a world in which life doesn't revolve around the press corps or the AMMP, the day after is a perfectly reasonable delay.
NOW's Valentine for You
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 5:42PM
The NAGs (the National Organization for Women) just sent an email wishing folks a "Happy Contraception Awareness Week." How sad. And typical.
First Victim of Lobbying Reform
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 4:41PM
Rumors on Capitol Hill have the venerable power dining establishment, La Colline, closing its doors soon. According to several sources, staff of the French restaurant have been informed that the property, which sits about two blocks away from Senate office buildings, has been sold. Word is investors of other restaurant properties in D.C. have bought it up with the intent of refurbishing and opening a new dining spot.
La Colline is a favorite spot for early morning Senate fundraising breakfasts, as well as power lunches. It was the scene of a number of infamous late-night bull sessions between Sens. Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd.
Israeli strke on Iran: options grow
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 4:33PM
New source with regard Israeli capability of striking Iran, notes the credibility of media reports before this present war and the rise of hallucinatory Ahmadinejad, that Israel has three critical self-developed weapons systems and one acquired weapons system that create many tactical options in the event that a decision is made to deter Iran nuclear weapons fuel cycle at Natanz and other deep and hard sites..
Israel has long been understood by its ally United States as in possession of multiple nuclear weapons that are miniaturized for missile warhead mounts: to this point, on September 22, 1979, an American Vela-class spy sat detected an Indian Ocean double flash that was consistent with previous Chinese and French tests. Also, Israel, since 2000, is said to be in possession of a medium range ballistic missile that can strike a target at a range of nine hndred niles. Also, Israel, since 1999, is said to possess several German built Dolphin class submarines capable of firing warhead missiles from the Indian Ocean at any time.
More, in 2004, Israel purchased, according to deliberately public reports, several hundred BLU-109 guided (bunker buster) bombs from the US arsenal.
The recommendation for on the ground special forces and simultaneous C3 and power grid strikes are also well within Israel capability. My experience is that there are multiple teams trained and tasked for most high risk missions to decapitate IRGC command and control.
Follow on strikes for Iran coastal threat and for blockade to force Iran to stand down from terror threat are not within Israel capability.
Am continuing to study the unthinkable of Israeli preventive strike.
Selective Confusion
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 1:30PM
In light of the continued carpet bombing by the media and Democrats about the mass confusion surrounding the Medicare drug benefits, here's something to consider from a recent news report from CBS 6 Albany News.
"The demise of nursing homes is also being fueled by a growing preference among seniors for alternative care settings like adult day care, assisted-living facilities and home-based care."
There are 45 prescription drug plans available to seniors in my home state of New Jersey. By comparison there are 75 different types of alternative care settings for seniors with different types of services, different monthly payments, locations, etc. The average cost of long-term care is about $20 K a year, which is nearly ten times more than what most seniors with two or more chronic illnesses will spend on drugs.
So let me get this straight: Four million seniors and their families are too confused to choose drug plans but they are more than able to select from twice as many alternative care communities that involved ten times more money?
Maybe I am the one who is confused.
Re: Shot Heard Round The World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 1:18PM
The press has just besieged Scott McClellan on the topic of Cheney's stay fire. Should the Vice President resign? Should criminal charges be filed? Isn't this too dangerous an activity for important persons to be doing?
These and other urgent questions occupy the conference. But the mask finally slips when one intrepid reporter suggests the trickle-up of shooting news from incident site to White House was reminiscent "of the levee story."
Oh, but did McClellan ever reject that insinuation. The press is rabid over the story's breaking in Corpus Christi courtesy of a private, not public, personage -- i.e., no splash for the national news. The White House communications bureaucracy might have a faulty pipeline -- one imagines it should be kept in the loop on matters such as these. But should the government PR machine dance to the media tune of instant access to instant news? Cheney accidentally kills a man -- news. Cheney accidentally shoots a man -- at what point is the public on a need-to-know basis?
Murtha on McLaughlin
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 1:15PM
Jack Murtha appeared on John McLaughlin's "One on One" program this weekend. (I've never seen it, but it's his "in-depth" interview show on PBS.) McLaughlin brought up my article on Murtha's lobbyist brother and Abscam past.
For starters, I can't figure out why McLaughlin's bringing this up. As far as I know, the article didn't make much of a splash. Thorough Google, Technorati, and Lexis Nexis searches turned up a negligible response. So either McLaughlin found the article in pre-show prep, or Murtha put him up to it so as to get a response on the record with a friendly interviewer. If it's the latter, he couldn't have found a better venue:
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Let's clear up something with you, Congressman. A few days ago a conservative publication, The American Spectator, published an article attacking you and your ethics and integrity. And the thrust of the article was because your brother, Kit, is a defense lobbyist, and you're engaging in, quote, unquote, "murky ethics" by virtue of the fact that he is the ranking Democratic member of the -- you are the ranking Democratic member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. How long has your brother been a defense lobbyist?
Actually, the thrust of the article was that guys like McLaughlin weren't looking at Murtha's lobbying ties with the same zeal as examining Republicans'.
REP. MURTHA: Well, probably 20 years. But we treat him like we treat everybody else. He's got a good project, we take care of it. If he doesn't have a good project, we don't take care of it. He served in the Marine Corps just like I did and he's a marvelous brother, but he doesn't get treated like -- he just get treated like anybody else.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You don't do any favors for him?
REP. MURTHA: We don't do any favors for him.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: No quid pro quo?
REP. MURTHA: We treat him exactly like everybody else.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Have you actually have rejected some of the ideas -- some of --
REP. MURTHA: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
That's it? No mention of the L.A. Times article uncovering many more details of this cozy relationship? Nothing of the fact that most of the benefiting defense contractor clients only signed up with KSA after Kit Murtha became a senior partner there? McLaughlin will take Murtha's word for it.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Let me ask you this -- were you involved in the Abscam scandals in the late 1970s, the FBI sting operation into congressional bribery? One senator and five members of the House were indicted after accepting bribes from undercover FBI agents in the sting, which centered around a fictitious effort to get support for arms sales to Middle Eastern countries. Murtha was approached by an undercover FBI agent, and you're on tape telling the agent, quote, unquote, "I'm not interested." Is that true?
REP. MURTHA: Not only that, John; they pulled a drawer out and they had $50,000 there and I said, "I'm not interested." I said, "I'm interested in investment in my district, period."
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: So the person who wrote this is really writing a smear -- a crude, cheap and actionable smear -- against you by say you were an unindicted co-conspirator. It was never suggested throughout the whole case -- in fact, the ethics committee exonerated you, correct?
Whoa, John. Quote the rest of the tape. Murtha said he wasn't interested "at this point." It doesn't change the legal outcome, but it's not an insignificant fact.
REP. MURTHA: Only two votes against out of 17 counts. I mean, it was -- it cleared completed. That was in the grand jury stage of it, for heaven's sakes.
This is the point at which a good interviewer would ask about the resignation of Ethics Committee lead counsel and prominent Democrat E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. just after Murtha was cleared.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Are you going to take any action against this person, whose name is David Holman?
REP. MURTHA: I'm not going to allow them to distract me, John, from my mission. My mission is one thing: to get the president to change his direction.
I thank the Congressman for his charity. A libel suit would be a bad idea for Murtha: not just because everything in the article is well sourced, but dredging up and reexamining the facts would be painfully embarrassing.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Is it character association --
REP. MURTHA: Well, it --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: -- assassination?
REP. MURTHA: I'll tell you, in my business, I take a lot of criticism. But in my estimation, what I do is try not to be distracted by this criticism. They're doing everything they can to distract from what I'm saying. I'm saying --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And they're also using you as a ploy to distract from the Republican Jack Abramoff.
REP. MURTHA: Yeah, good point.
Which one is the partisan politician here? But this tactic of claiming that those questioning Murtha's ethics are intentionally distracting from his Iraq message is precisely what I outlined in my article:
Perhaps that national prominence is steering the major press away. ... John Murtha is apparently using a controversy he created in November to shield himself from his ethical past. His comments about the war in Iraq make for convenient cover in an increasingly critical ethical atmosphere.
The Clintons would be proud of this one: because of the unstated, potential motivations of a few, the intentions of all who question Murtha are suspect.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Do you think this story originates with The American Spectator or David Holman, or do you think it originates somewhere else?
REP. MURTHA: Well, I have no idea where it originates, but I'll tell you --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You don't see any sinister genius at the White House pulling this string, do you?
REP. MURTHA: (Laughs.) I don't know the guy and I've heard a lot about him, but I have no doubt that it could have originated there. But the point is that they're trying to distract from what I'm saying. They can't answer it substantively. They can't say --
Again, who's the partisan politician? Both. Sorry, Johns, but conspiracy theories don't qualify as political dialogue. If I'm on Karl Rove's speed dial, I'd sure like to know it.
Re: Shot Heard Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 11:42AM
A friend writes to set me straight on driving and hunting in Texas:
"You don't know the half of it.
"As a frequent bird hunter in South Texas -- but never having had the privilege to be invited to the Armstrong Ranch -- I thought I'd give you a little background. A close friend from San Antonio has long had a hunting lease on the Galvan Ranch, on the Rio Grande west of Laredo. It's nasty country, often miserably cold in the winter and downright uninhabitable during the summer, with razor sharp prickly pear needles and invisible cactus spikes that can penetrate the thickest canvas denim or leather boots, mean and vile-smelling javelina and rattlesnakes as long as a man is tall and thigh wide. When it rains, the caliche can stop a four-wheel drive vehicle in its tracks. That said, it offers some of the best quail hunting in the world.
"To get to these birds, though, a vehicle is required because much of the terrain is impassable for all but short distances. For longtime lessees, the transportation sport is every bit as competitive as the hunting. For hunting rigs, bigger definitely is better and nothing is too outlandish to be off-limits. If it can be imagined -- and welded together -- it's fair game, if you will. It's not uncommon to see Chevy Suburbans with heavy-duty suspensions and four-wheel drive with a second and even a third story, and the occasional lookout tower. My friend's Suburban, for instance, has a general, railed platform welded above the roof that allows firing from all sides. To the rear, is an extended area with a couple of comfortable vinyl-covered bench seats and room for coolers and gear. Above that platform is another that contains a motorboat's dashboard, with the steering wheel running down through the platforms and truck roof into the cab and attached to the factory-installed steering column, and the gas and break pedals rigged into the boat's gear shifts. There are additional bench seats on that deck, along with shotgun racks, and a rudimentary table and counter top for beverages and snacks, usually Coca-Cola, beer and saltines and jalapeños. It is there that most of the sighting, and BS-ing is conducted. On the back of the Suburban are feed tanks that can spray out corn kernels to seed the roads for deer. The truck can be used at night, since it is also outfitted with several jetliner spotlights.
"It is not often that any firing is done from the truck, however. For one, the engine is kind of loud. But rifle and pistol shots have been taken at rattlesnakes, javelina, jackrabbits, deer and empty cans. My friend doesn't have a skeet trap on the back but I have seen vehicles with them. You haven't lived if you haven't had the opportunity to hunt this way.
"To get back to the Armstrong Ranch, I have no idea what Dick Cheney's party was traveling in but I doubt it was a 'car.' At the very least, they were in a Suburban or something high enough to spot bird activity. Like our parties on the Galvan, not every covey would lure every hunter. If it's a small one, only a couple will go. If it's a good-size flock, there might be more competition. At least one person always needs to stay behind with high-powered binoculars, though, the better to direct everyone when the boots on the ground are trying to weave through prickly pear and head-high scrub brush.
"I'm telling you, Wlady, this is about as fun as it gets. Especially if it's a good group of guys, the quail are active, the sky is blue and the weather is pleasant. When are kids are able to come with us, it makes it that much more worthwhile, especially at dinner time. I don't care for the alkali showers in the morning, though.
"And, no, I've never peppered anyone with buckshot or been peppered myself, although one always needs to be aware that accidents do happen. Communication is always the key.
"My one regret is that I'm unable to go this winter."
Santorum Still Trailing
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 10:35AM
Bob Casey the younger by 15 points, 51 to 36 percent, in Quinnipiac's latest poll.
Re: Shot Heard 'Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 10:31AM
Dave: I do indeed. But I"m a recovering lawyer. I know quite a few fellow-counsel I'd like to bag. Don't forget, I'm a very experienced hunter.
Jack and George
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 10:29AM
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the "Abramoff and Bush" photo isn't quite the smoking gun the left was hoping for and the press touted it to be. It's such a strain to spot Abramoff in the background that Time had to circle his tiny head. Which isn't to say there may be more out there. I'd be surprised if there weren't Jack and George grip-and-grin photos in existence. But if there are, the press probably doesn't have them: they're going to lead with their best shot, and at this point Abramoff looks like the goofy cousin who snuck into the family photo.
Re: Shot Heard Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 9:24AM
A lawyer bag limit? Jed, don't you have a law degree?
Outsourcing the UN
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 8:56AM
A report yesterday said that Kofi Annan was preparing to oursource and "privatize" many of the functions of the UN Secretariat. We expect to receive reports that the Gottis, Gambinos and Profaccis are all preparing bids. If one of the Families were to win the contract, there would be certain improvements in UN operations. Their practice is superior to the UN's in at least one respect: they hold employees responsible for job performance.
Re: Shot Heard 'Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 8:38AM
Wlady/Dave: So what's the bag limit on lawyers?
Re: Shot Heard Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 7:36AM
Wlady, since hunting's a sport, and shooting from the backseat window isn't sporting, the situation you describe is a plutocratic exercise, not hunting. I'm not sure about the laws in Texas or even my adopted home of Virginia, but I know that in Montana shooting from the backseat window is not only unsporting, it's illegal.
Shot Heard Round the World
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 1:30AM
"Some Cheney critics pointed out that this is not the first Cheney hunting controversy," the Washington Post notes in taking pot shots of its own at Dick Cheney in its report today on the accidental shooting of Harry Whittington this past weekend. So going duck hunting with Antonin Scalia is the equivalent of a near-tragic accident? Better yet, the Post ends it story by giving the last word to two anti-hunting activists. (Incidentally, just who were those "Cheney critics" the story refers to but makes no effort to identify in any shape or form?)
More interesting was ESPN.com, which on its home pages linked to an AP report via this headline: "Vice president accidentally shoots fellow hunter." In its view it was, in short, a sporting mishap.
If political hay is to me made, it might come thanks to such details as this one in the Post's report, based on an interview with the owner of the Texas property on which the shooting occurred: "According to Armstrong's account, she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail..."
Years ago I read a memoir by a translator once employed by the head of Poland's Communist Party. In it he described hunting outings his boss would take to a special state-run hunting preserve in the company of such Soviet-era big wig visitors as Leonid Brezhnev and Walter Ulbricht. To the translator's horror, all the hunting took place from the comfort of an official car, which saw the unsporting commie strong-men blasting away at specially provided game through an open backseat window.
At least in Texas they got out of the car. But is it hunting if you drive right up to your target? Or just a plutocratic exercise?
Syrian-Iraqi Border -- New Reports
Posted by on 2.13.06 @ 12:32AM
Speaking Monday with source from Beirut who is just returned from the Syrian-Iraqi border, where he found U.S. force commanders reporting a sharp drop in jihadists infiltrating from Syria to Iraq. No single explanation. Speculation includes remarks that the Syrians are training the jihadists at Syrian bases; also it is possible that there is a seasonal lull in jihad recruiting. Also it is possible that the Sunni clans that live on smuggling and robbery are weary or pacified or cooperating with Baghdad pay-offs.
Note that Zarqawi has been on air since the Amman attacks of last November. Zarqawi said to be reorganizing. The Zarqawi program in Iraq has now been exported to other theaters, such as Top in Southeast Asia.
Note also that Saddam Hussein and his fellow accused beginning hunger strike. Not unusual. Regime henchmen live in denial, transform themselves into victims. Iraq choosing new cabinet means that there is now someone to hang Saddam Hussein quickly. However, it is not a deep tradition in the ummah to execute rival sheikhs.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Re: Bush's Svengali
Posted by on 2.12.06 @ 10:14PM
Another one for the "I don't think it means what you think it means" file:
"It's going to be a menace trying to clean it up," said Mayor Scott T. Rumana in Wayne, N.J. [of the record snowfall this weekend.]A menace?
Guttmacher References
Posted by on 2.12.06 @ 3:31PM
Whenever the media refers to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, it ought to mention that it's Planned Parenthood's research arm. Instead, like the Post today, many references identify AGI as "a nonprofit organization focused on reproductive health issues." That's the party line from AGI.
The AGI website gives a bio that any enterprising journalist should find useful. Unfortunately, many journalists are lazy or pro-abortion, like AGI.
Bush's Svengali
Posted by on 2.12.06 @ 3:21PM
Is Karl Rove, according to the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, in his item today on White House fundraising. I've only heard "Svengali" as a term of derision, since it means "one who attempts usually with evil intentions to persuade or force another to do his bidding" (Webster's). Now, Rove as Svengali is the left's caricature, but Cillizza's column is ostensibly reporting only, not opinion.
I've emailed Cillizza asking if he knows what Svengali means. I'll let you know what he says.
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