- Jan 1–7 8–14 15–21 22–28 29–31
- Feb 1–4 5–11 12–18 19–25 26–28
- Mar 1–4 5–11 12–18 19–25 26–31
- Apr 1 2–8 9–15 16–22 23–29 30
- May 1–6 7–13 14–20 21–27 28–31
- Jun 1–3 4–10 11–17 18–24 25–30
- Jul 1 2–8 9–15 16–22 23–29 30–31
- Aug 1–5 6–12 13–19 20–26 27–31
- Sep 1–2 3–9 10–16 17–23 24–30
- Oct 1–7 8–14 15–21 22–28 29–31
- Nov 1–4 5–11 12–18 19–25 26–30
- Dec 1–2 3–9 10–16 17–23 24–30
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Re: Enemy of the State Returns
Posted by on 4.22.06 @ 3:47PM
Ned: Useless senators? Careful lest thou commit a grammatical redundancy. Ken: I think that's unfair to Franks. As I understand it, his plan was vetted, modified and approved by all - including Rumsfeld, Pace, Myers and the president - and worked damned well. The issue of what came after wasn't Franks's to plan or command.
Re: Corruption Runs Both Ways
Posted by on 4.22.06 @ 1:44PM
Nice, Dave, to connect the dots between Congressional shenanigans and the China's glowering global interests. It's very much in the public's interest to understand what a vast obstacle Beijing has become to our preferences and necessities, to grasp how much China is working right now to undermine them, and to know why. Batchelor has done some heavy dot-connecting of his own on that tip, of course, as have the guys at ThreatsWatch. I want to highlight the antagonistic geopolitical link between China and Iran in terms of culture -- both states have venerable cultures that adopted autocratic governments. No surprise that their objectives and interests overlap -- in direct opposition to our own. Plenty to say on this point. More to come.
Corruption Runs Both Ways
Posted by on 4.22.06 @ 11:07AM
Rep. Alan Mollohan has temporarily left the House Ethics Panel, hoping to help Democratic leaders stem damage to their "Republicans are corrupt" message.
-I doubt Mollohan's departure is "temporary." If anything about his earmarks scandal sticks, he won't be back.
-Democrats are foolhardy to think that this move cleans up their act sufficiently to go after Republicans. Pelosi is painting Mollohan's scandal as a partisan attack to provide cover for GOP scandals. But the record so far is clear: Republicans aren't protecting their politicians from corruption charges (readers of this blog differ on whether that's a proper response -- I think they should presume innocence until guilt is proven, but not undertake a Clintonian scorched Earth policy to protect guys who could very well be guilty as sin). Duke Cunningham's out of the House and convicted. Tom DeLay is out of leadership and on his way out of the House. Frankly, the dirty Republicans are behaving like Democrats did when they ran the show. As such...
-If Democrats really want to go down this road, a brief white paper listing Democratic scandals from just 1980 to 2000 would make a helpful point. We could begin with Clinton's lax control of military technology and China's subsequent leap ahead in military strength and technology. That's not petty stuff -- it helped transform China into the grave threat it is today.
Enemy of the State Returns
Posted by on 4.22.06 @ 9:17AM
Having apparently recovered from the national backlash he suffered after comparing Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to a Nazi death camp (and the intellectual thrashings he suffered at the hands of John Roberts and Samuel Alito) Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois wants to return to center stage. The strong rumor is that he will introduce a "no confidence" resolution aimed at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as soon as the Senate returns next week. (It has apparently escaped Durbin that we don't have a parliamentary system of government in which such resolutions have the effect - if passed - of removing the target from government.)
This comes as a bit of a shock to other Dems eager for the publicity it can generate for Durbin. Schumer -- Little Miss Gun Control -- will be simply seething. And it's going to be very interesting to see how many Dems jump to support it other than Russ "Censure" Feingold. Will Rumsfeld's cloaked Republican adversary - the one whose staffer attacks via anonymous quotes in the NYT - be revealed?
Too bad these guys spend all their time attacking Rumsfeld with nary a harsh word directed at people like Zarqawi.
Looks to be a busy week coming for the attack poodles nipping at the Big Dog's ankles. Stay tuned.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Snow Job
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 6:24PM
Prowler -- I still don't quite get why everybody seems so down on John Snow. Frankly, on substance he seems to have done a very solid job. And he's never off message, and he works his tail off. He's done everything they've asked of him. His only drawback (and this may be a big enough drawback to be important) is that he's not an exciting communicator. But the man deserves better than a death by a thousand leaks.
All that said, my idea for the best replacement for him, if he is to be replaced, is the same guy I've touted for about five other important jobs in DC: Chris Cox. Yeah, he's only been at the SEC for eight months, but then again Rob Portman hadn't been Trade Rep very long either. Cox has done a great job at SEC and he has all the right skill sets to make him a first class SecTreas. And while Phil Gramm is smart as hell, Gramm has the ability to scare people or turn them off; Cox will never do that. If PR is the problem, Cox is a better answer than Gramm. For one thing, I guarantee you COx will NEVER wax eloquent about "Dicky Flatt"!!!!
Gramm
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 6:13PM
There are rumors floating about DC today that former Sen. Phil Gramm is about to be named Treasury Secretary to replace Secretary John Snow.
There were rumors earlier this week that Gramm was being offered a job as "senior counselor" to the President to oversee Congressional relations, among other things.
Gramm's name have been floated a number of times over the past 18 months and nothing much has come of it. There are several other people who would love to put their hats in the ring for the Treasury job: Robert Kimmett and Tim Adams, both Snow deputy secretaries, have made it clear they would like the job. And White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten spent five years with Goldman Sachs before moving to Austin in 1999, so he knows the senior Wall Street types that might be enamoured of the job.
Another Good Shake-up
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 4:54PM
When is something broken in Iraq cause for optimism? When it's that government logjam. Jaafari's replacement strikes all parties, according to statement, as acceptable. Now a whole new thicket of practical questions: why him -- Jawad al-Maliki? Why now? Wasn't the deadlock about more than one fellow? But you can also ask some bigger questions, in light of our own administration's personnel issues. Like: what can a people do when held hostage by ossified staffing structures and the personalities they tolerate? A question for the ages; some reflections here.
Good Shake-up
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 2:13PM
In opposition to those who say the White House staff changes are merely cosmetic, I have good reason to believe the shake-up there will turn out to be quite significant. New Chief of Staff Josh Bolten really does seem to "get it" when it comes to understanding that this White House needs a more creative, more energetic, more politically astute (less politically tone-deaf) attitude and atmosphere. I really do sense a political comeback in the making, based both on better style AND better substance.
Dhimmitude at the Gym?
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 1:51PM
Some Muslim women have signed a petition asking the Fitness USA chain to provide separate exercise days for men and women, or put up a divider so they cannot see one another. "In Islam, there are codes of modesty for both genders," one of them says, in a small but illustrative example of the Islamist effort to conform public spaces to their standards. The women claim that they were promised separate exercise days, which the gym chain denies. Anyone want to take bets that Fitness USA will cave, or at least meet them halfway?
Today on Kudlow & Co.
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 8:54AM
I'll be on with Larry Kudlow today talking about Iran and the need for a military draft in order to invade Iran. That's not my idea, mind you. My opponent in the debate thinks it's a fine and dandy idea. Hope you can catch it.
Falun Dafa speaks the facts
Posted by on 4.21.06 @ 1:27AM
Spoke with Falun Dafa sources this evening re Hu protest at White House.
Dr. Wang Wanyi, a medical physician, a graduate of American University, an accredited journalist with Epoch Times, a New York area resident, an American citizen, is charged by the Federals with disorderly conduct and with intimidating and disturbing a foreign official, for her bold, accurate Mandarin statement during the joint press conference at the White House by Bush and Hu, that Hu is a criminal and an evil person.
Dr. Wang is speaking to the facts of the abuse and murder of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) prectitioners in the PRC , and to the fact of the organ harvesting by Chinese authorities. A fresh human heart cost $170,000. A fresh human eye cost $30,000.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Re: Undeserved Unpopularity
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 7:39PM
Larry: Truth be told, it's more than just not spreading the message well. That's the libDem excuse. You gotta walk the walk as well as talk the talk. We can forgive his malapropisms, his unease with the press and his lack of imagination in speeches. I could forgive all that and leap to help fix the broken wheels on the bandwagon if only he'd do some of the stuff we need that should be terribly easy, especially for a second-termer.
Maybe that's the problem: Bush does reasonably well on the hard stuff and completely blows it on the easy ones. It's like he doesn't want to be bothered. Josh Bolton should talk him into picking some of the low-hanging fruit on the political tree. We'd all be better off.
And then he can get on to the tougher ones. I'm paying well over $3 a gallon for super premium to feed the Mustang. How long can the economy keep heading up while we're sending the Saudis, et al., every dollar we can stuff into a gas pump? And just how many nukes will ol' Mahmoud have in a year or less?
Re: Undeserved Unpopularity
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 7:26PM
In my column of January 11, I quoted David Gregory of NBC asking President Bush why he thought his poll numbers were so low. And then wrote:
Let's imagine that President Bush could have answered that question the way it deserved.
"Oh, I don't know, Stretch. I suppose when the
greatest image- and opinion-making machine the world has ever seen
devotes five years to making me look bad, it might have some
effect."
Contrast that treatment to the ongoing media love affair with Bill Clinton, and you have a 30 point difference.
Back in the Clinton wars, I used to think regularly, "Any time now, the whole American people will know that the media just lies." Well, more of them know that than used to. But a lot of them still don't.
And Jed, as you've said so well, Bush makes his case very badly -- and very seldom.
Re: Undeserved Unpopularity
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 5:55PM
Quin: I'm with you, almost. The president does, on the facts, deserve much more support than he receives from conservatives as well as others. But he has to do more. There are so many things he could do easily - veto a horrendous spending bill, do something (anything) serious about closing the borders to illegal immigrants, start bringing possible 2008 presidential candidates in for consultations, I could (and will) go on and on. If he meets us less than halfway, his polls will skyrocket. Next move has to be from La Casa Blanca.
Undeserved unpopularity
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 5:08PM
Jed, this is all getting bizarre. I have been a frequent critic of this president, but for the general public to give him such low ratings is absurd. By all normal indicia, this nation is in terrific shape. Unemployment, interest rates, inflation: All at levels that by historical standards are incredibly low. Crime down. Home ownership up. Stock market back up, while stock ownership is, too. Taxes low. No domestic terrorism since 9/11. Success in Afghanistan. The end of Ghadafi's nuke program. Solid relations with both India AND Pakistan at the same time. Very solid relations with Japan and Great Britain and Australia and with much of Eastern Europe. More countries rated "free" (and more "somewhat free" as opposed to "not free") by Freedom House that at any time in recorded history. But Americans are spoiled. We don't realize just how good our lives are today. I may have to write a column on this.
Meanwhile, National Review at one point had a saying that it was a fair-weather critic of right-leaning pols but a firm foul-weather friend. It's time again to be a foul-weather friend. For all the administration's mistteps (especially after Katrina, which hit so close to home for me), President Bush's heart is in the right place and his courage on the big issues has been undaunted. In today's foul political weather, I will now rally to the president's defense. I urge all conservatives to put aside our grievances and do likewise.
Just How Low can it Go?
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 4:48PM
The new Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll puts the president's popularity at 33%. A little -- admittedly incomplete -- internet research doesn't show a lower number for any president. LBJ, befor announcing he wouldn't run again was at about 38%. Is this the lowest ever measured for any president?
Moqtada al Sadr, Kingmaker
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 2:19PM
What personage, what veilwork of reasons, could lurk behind Jaafari's decision to make himself removable as Prime Minister of Iraq? AP reports:
Key to al-Jaafari's change of heart was
pressure from U.N. envoy Ashraf Qazi and his meetings Wednesday
with the most powerful Shiite cleric in the country, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who
has backed al-Jaafari, said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud
Othman.
"There was a signal from Najaf," Othman said,
referring to al-Sistani's office in the Shiite holy city. "Qazi's
meetings with (al-Sistani) and al-Sadr were the chief reason that
untied the knot."
My bet is, the United Nations has little sway among Baghdad's
Shiites. My bet is, Kurdish threats of bolting over to a Sunni
coalition were sort of icing on the cake. My bet is, chatting with
Sistani is like going to see the Wizard relative to tea with
"Mookie" -- the man with the muscle, the snaggletooth prince of Iraqi nationalism, the man who
will determine, singlehandedly, the fateful reach of Iran in his
country.
May Issue
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 12:26PM
The May issue of The American Spectator is now up for digital subscribers. Among many other fine pieces, Roger Scruton kicks off his monthly column with an article on modern Islam's abandonment of its own culture and Shawn Macomber considers his fortune to return to the United States while brave Iraqis and American troops sort out the mess there.
If you're a print subscriber, access the online edition here. Not yet a subscriber? You're missing out: the digital subscription is a mere $19.95 a year, and the print/digital subscription is $39.95. Subscribe today.
Reid's Read on Iran
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 10:29AM
Thanks to Harry Reid - speaking for the party of Cynthia McKinney - we now know that the United States lacks a military option on Iran because we're too tied up in Iraq. Funny. No one I know among the nation's senior military leaders would say that. Maybe Harry wouldn't listen to his senior military advisors. Oh, sorry. I forgot. That's not the province of Dems who brought us Blackhawk Down, US soldiers wearing UN berets and so forth. That, according to the Dems, is the province of Don Rumsfeld.
Why, oh why, does anybody take Reid seriously about anything, especially national defense? Thanks, Harry babe, for proving to the world that the Iranians are entirely free to pursue nuclear weapons if they can outwait GWB.
Re: Great Burke Quote
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 10:22AM
Quin, your cite to Burke at once brought to mind a few lines from Philip Rieff, of whom I am a great and all-too-rare enthusiast:
A culture in control needs first of all to preserve that control by not reaching its legal arms too far into the labyrinths of public life. The guardians of any culture must constantly protect the difference between the public and private sectors -- and encourage forms of translation between the two sectors; that is the meaning of ritual in all traditional cultures.
For the reader who'd like to read deeper, I've put together a
sort of concordance of my glosses and commentaries on Rieff and
culture
here.
Noonan on target
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 10:14AM
Hat tip to Peggy Noonan for this excellent column on the Bush presidency, capturing some of the president's strengths (which are significant) but also really homing in on his weaknesses.
The Revolting Generals
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 9:58AM
The latest attack on Big Dog Don Rumsfeld has run its course, with predictable results. The Big Dog stays, and his enemies remain frustrated by the fact that the president remains confident in the man who's doing precisely what he was hired to do: shake up the Pentagon.
Stephen Herbits has an interesting take on the revolting -- actually, quite so - generals in today's Wash Times. Very much worth a look.
Great Burke Quote
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 9:53AM
Courtesy of reader Bob Keiser of Wilkes Barre, PA, in response to my column yesterday about coarseness in American culture and especially on the Left, comes this wonderful, wonderful quote from the great British statesman Edmund Burke: "Manners are of more importance than Laws. Upon them in great measure the Laws depend. The Law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, invisible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them or they totally destroy them."
I just thought the quote bore repeating, and I thank Mr. Keiser for sharing it.
Gates at Hanoi
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 9:48AM
Spoke to source in Hanoi last evening, and she reported the Communist 10th Party Congress tyros of Vietnam are most excited that Bill Gates arrives this weekend for a fete with the leadership. The sons of the NVA are looking to America and especially to IT to lead them out of backwardness and corruption. The theme of the 10th Congress is that every official in Vietnam is for sale at least once a day and that nothing is trustworthy.
At the same time, another commercial source tells me that Vietnam is most attractive compared to mainland China. The factories are clean, the workers are quick and eager, the management is well-spoken, English-skilled, and convincingly pro-American.
Too many ironies to count in all this, though I am compelled to mention that it will not take thirty years for Iraq to shake off the label of righteous victim of American aggression and beg for Gates to fly in to start IT plants and so forth. I mention that there is no presence at the 10th Party Congress in Hanoi of either Jane Fonda or the Sheehan fan club: they've moved on to fresh fairy tales.
PRC organ-harvesting protests at Seattle
Posted by on 4.20.06 @ 9:37AM
Spoke to Falun Dafa source at Seattle last evening, and she reported two days of most successful demonstrations at Seattle.
Falun Dafa (aka Falun Gang) protesters were at Hu's hotel at all hours, a twenty-four hour presence, at the four corners of the hoptel, speaking loudly in protests in Mandarin and English and other languages, against the criminal abuse of millions inside China today and around the world today, including in the United States.
Source reported that the protesters were present at the Boeing airport, at the hotel, at an intersection near the Gates Mansion; and that she saw Hu look at the demos as his limo passed in Gates's land on Tuesday evening.
Source also reported new efforts to inform the public about the news of Chinese government approved organ harvesting from concentration camps. She reported that they have information of doctors in China letting people know they should get their transplants before July 1, because the organs are going to be harder to get atafter that date. No special explanation as to what July 1 represents, except that the PRC tyros are feeling pressure from outside publicity of their crimes.
Source also reported that the organs are advertised as fresh and healthy because they come from executed Falun Dafa prisoners in the six major conentration camps.
Source also reported that the workers at Boeing were most supportive of the protesters, giving them thumbs-up at the perimeter of the facilities. Source said that the MSFT workers were all very well informed of the protests.
Most significant, source reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has not commented on the protests against organ harvesting.
There is a new website under construction to feature the news reports of the organ harvesting.
Am aware that this is difficult to believe if this is the first or second time you have read the news.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Lady votes for Corallo
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 5:04PM
By the way, I would be remiss if I fail to note that earlier today, long before the Hotline's mention of Corallo, I received an e-mail from the mysterious Lady G., who sometimes posts her brilliant insights here, to the effect that her personal recommendation for McClellan's replacement would be "Mark C." And almost two months ago, the Lady recommended on this site that the White House communications shop be beefed up.
Re: Let Corallo be McClellan
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 4:15PM
It would be great for Mark to get that job. But my money is on Torie Clark (who was superb at the Pentagon) or Tony Snow (who has been great since the days of 41).
Let Corallo be McClellan!
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 3:05PM
Well, the Hotline mentioned Mark Corallo here. Corallo was my replacement in Rep. Bob Livingston's office nearly a decade ago. A straight shooter with unimpeachable integrity, smart as they come, and very very well respected by the DC press corps.
McClellan's Replacement
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 1:34PM
Hotline On Call has a rundown of candidates. In addition to Tony Snow, who has been widely reported to be in the mix, they look at Rob Nichols, Dan Bartlett, Victoria Clark, Dan Senor, Brian Jones, and Ron Bojean.
Hear, hear, Quin
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 11:59AM
I'm with you on John Batchelor's prognostications, Quin. I've listened to John's show a long time, and I think he regularly reveals information virtually nobody else has, or pays attention to, and that's important. I take the trouble of driving my car to the nearest high ground so I can tune in WABC to listen to him most nights, I consider his show so important (Boston radio doesn't carry him any more).
But you're right, he's short on solutions. For a fact-filled long read about Iran and its relationship with the U.S., both past and going forward, see Edward Luttwak's Commentary essay here.
Luttwak is fairly sanguine -- and makes a good case -- about how soon Iran could develop The Bomb. He overlooks the possibility that China or the Norks could short-circuit that laborious process and move the Persians much closer much quicker. But his analysis of the historical interest of Russia in Iran is fabulous, as is his lengthy reminder of why Iran is so important to the U.S.McClellan Out
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 10:27AM
As press secretary. Probably a smart move on a few levels.
Solutions, John???
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 10:07AM
To John Batchelor -- You keep posting informative (and very scary) reports about Iran. The next question, though, is: What do you recommend the United States (or anybody else) DO in response???!???! Please enlighten us.
Just Sit There and Take It
Posted by on 4.19.06 @ 8:53AM
David Cloud’s piece on Donald Rumsfeld in today’s New York Times is par for the course on how this administration’s players are treated whenever they attempt to answer their critics. This customary and necessary practice for a political official somehow acquires a taint of scandal and intrigue when that official is employed within the Bush administration. The article’s title says it all: “Here's Donny! In His Defense, a Show Is Born.” But evidence for this “show” is rather thin. Cloud describes the Defense Secretary’s rebuttals to calls for his resignation as “a daily ritual,” before noting that yesterday’s Rumsfeld press conference was merely the third in five days. He describes the “extraordinary parade of generals,” including a “bevy of retired officers,” who have joined the plot to defend Rumsfeld, but names only Generals Myers and Franks.
Cloud even bemoans that the Bush administration people aren’t going through their customary, shadowy back channels to defend Rumsfeld: "Such extended repeated public displays of self-defense are not the norm in
So Rumsfeld, in producing his “show,” has apparently acknowledged that criticism does matter, and has decided to answer it himself. But – surprise! – he can’t win.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Coke Liable For Fizz
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 9:01PM
Remember the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit? Double the absurdity, and you get Coca-Cola, Kroger, and the manufacturer-distributor being sued for a can spraying fizz when opened. And an appeals court agrees. (via Overlawyered)
PLA Prolferation as War-Making: Appendix Part 4
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 6:24PM
1. Iran's atomic bomb-making and missile production are the direct result of ruthless and self-serving Chinese (PLA) proliferation.
1a. Following the successful containment of the Chinese anarchy of the 1980s, the PLA's concern was that it must prepare for the US response come the day the PLA moves to retake Taiwan. China's special sense of vulnerability was that the southeast of China, the industrial heartland, is vulnerable to US air strike, including nuclear weapon airstrike.
2. After the first Gulf War, Jiang Zemin and the PLA chose a policy to create multiple hotspots for the United States targeting, since the US nuclear warchest was locked into treaty limited production. China saw that every hotspot created outside of Russia and China was one more target away from the industrial heartland of China. Therefore, the PLA decision was to turn on proliferation. The first stage of the plan began with the Benazir Bhutto visit to China in 1993, when the transfers began into the hands of A.Q. Khan. An adjacent step was to transfer weapons technology to Kim Il Jung, the old man, in North Korea.
3. The Khan proliferation is China-driven, working with technicians from North Korea and China. Benazir Bhutto passed the development teams off to Nawaz Shariff who passed them off to Mushareff. This is the germ of the so-called Arab bomb. The Pakistani test in 1998 was a demonstration to the Ummah that the bomb was available as state policy.
4. The next stage of the PLA proliferation plan was to prolferate the proliferated -- hence the Pakistani transfer of nuclear weapons fuel-making technology to Iran and Iraq and Libya and Syria and Egypt and Sudan. Also the same transfer of ballistic missile technology and warhead development from North Korea to the same Ummah states. the North Korean technicians are necessary because the uranium based weapons must fit the mirved warhead of the North Korean (PLA) designs.
5. The Iran bomb making is well advanced and is supported by technicians from China, North Korea, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and Iran. The Chinese keep a hand in because they need to maintain bona fides with Tehran to grow the bilateral energy deals. Saudi Arabia keeps its checks avaiable because it wants to stay off the target list.
6. Best signals source ruminates that the next frontier for the PLA plan is to prolferate into Africa. The prior and well-established Libya and Egypt cooperation suggests the ambition is for sub-Sahara Africa. This stage is stalled just now because no African nation has the cash and or structure required. (Note: check Nigeria: check Sudan: check Zimbabwe: note check yellowcake from South African mines, Niger mines).
7. The Iran uranium bomb-making and mirved multi-stage missile production is protected from UN Chapter 7 by the Chinese (PLA) seat at the UNSC.
8. This is an appendix for WAR WARNING, PART 4. It is also a fresh way way to look at the manadrin class sitting with MSFT at the Gates Mansion in Seattle. WAR WARNING, PART 5, with regard the recent Rafsanjani envoy to Syria and the Gulf States, to be produced soonest.
Placenta Stew
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 2:44PM
This deserves a cross-magazine chime-in, if for no other reason than my ability to pull journalistic seniority on the NRO crew. On The Corner, Jonah Goldberg has taken off on the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes declaration that they intend to eat the placenta from their baby-to-be. In 1972, I hitchhiked from L.A. to San Francisco, and stayed overnight near Santa Cruz in a commune devoted to all things natural. This group had self-published a book on their various creeds and practices. Said book included a recipe for placenta stew, together with photographs of said dish in process of preparation. I wrote a story about it and sent it of to the long-forgotten news service for which I was stringing at the time. As I recall, I got paid, but I don't know when or where or even if the story appeared.
The Rumsfeld Question
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 12:27PM
Jim Geraghty makes a good point: Can the Rummy-must-go crowd suggest a realistic replacement who would be an improvement?
WSJ on Oil
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 12:07PM
Today's Wall Street Journal has an
important front-page article on why oil is at an all-time
(non-inflation-adjusted) high even though inventories are at an
eight-year high. It's well worth a read.
The short answer is that refining capacity hasn't kept up, and that federal policies are a large part of the problem. Drilling is banned in an important part of Alaska, banned off the Virginia shore even though Virginia seems to want drilling, and banned so far off Florida's shoreline that Floridians themselves should be embarrassed by the amount of ridiculous deference shown to them. And regulations of all sorts have made new refineries for 30 years a losing proposition -- and until last year's largely execrable Energy Bill, which at least had a few good provisions in it, nuclear power was similarly burdened and therefore far too little used. Then, of course, there's this: "Even as crude stockpiles have swelled, U.S. inventories of gasoline have fallen as refiners have shut down operations to perform maintenance and prepare to meet new government-mandated fuel formulas...."
What happened is that first Congress encouraged a product called (I think it is) MTBE, and then ecofreaks started suing because MTBE supposedly leached into the ground water. So then Congress banned MTBE, and then refused to hold MTBE producers harmless for producing the product that Congress itself had encouraged. Then Congress mandated ever-increasing use of ethanol, even in the face of evidence that there may not be enough supply and that the transition to ethanol would require refineries to shut down in order to convert to the new requirements.
In short, this is all Congress' fault. Or if not all, at least mostly. Which is nothing new. Aside from tax cuts on capital gains, Congress hasn't done a darn thing right in about eight years.
Sessions With Sense
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 11:43AM
In today's NRO, my former U.S. senator, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, makes an incredibly strong case against the so-called "compromise" immigration bill. It's well worth reading.
Democrat Touts Low Taxes
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 11:41AM
It sure is strange for a Democrat to celebrate his state's low tax burden when he has supported major tax increases in the past and currently campaigns for new ones.
Yet that's the ironic position in which Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine finds himself after Ford Motor Co. announced that it would close its Norfolk plant in 2008.
GOVERNOR KAINE TOUTS INDEPENDENT STUDIES THAT SHOW
VIRGINIA IS LOW TAX,BUSINESS-FRIENDLY STATE ~ Tax Foundation places Virginia 41st among 50 states ~
RICHMOND – On the day after the federal income tax filing deadline, Governor Timothy M. Kaine highlighted a new report from the non-partisan, non-profit Tax Foundation that ranksas the 41st lowest among the 50 states in state and local tax burden. The Tax Foundation analyzed state and local business licensing and sales taxes, real property and tangible personal property rates, Census data, and other factors to determine its annual ratings. It is the third independent, non-partisan study in recent weeks to designate Virginia as a low tax state with business-friendly policies. Virginia "This report from the Tax Foundation reinforces the fact that
is one of the nation’s best-managed states, with a diverse and growing economy and a low tax burden," said Governor Kaine. "We are in this favorable position because we have followed conservative fiscal policies, we plan responsibly, and we keep our commitments. We will maintain this successful approach as we work to continue moving Virginia forward." Virginia
Such a low tax burden is in spite of Kaine's best efforts to the contrary. As lieutenant governor, Kaine endorsed then-Gov. Mark Warner's $1.36 billion tax increase in 2004, which has produced a $544 million surplus. Kaine now proposes "new revenue sources" (a.k.a. taxes) to the tune of an additional $1 billion a year to fund road construction. This breaks his campaign promise, only months old, to veto tax increases for transportation.
Note that Kaine points to low taxes when jobs are leaving, but isn't proposing tax cuts to keep them.
Poulos Is Right; Kids Must Write
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 11:35AM
James has been onto something important for quite a while here. But first, a caveat: Education in math and science IS very important. I don't think anybody should advocate an emphasis on other things to the detriment of math and science. That said, it truly is foolish to concentrate so young on math and science to the detriment of other, more basic educational goals -- such as the transmission of a common culture and of basic civics, and, even more importantly, the ability to communicate, especially in writing, and to use reason and logic while doing so. In recent years I have been appalled at the inability even of supposedly well-educated students to write worth a spit.
For example, just a few years ago I was asked to judge the op-ed portion of the student journalism award at one of the top universities in the nation. Mind you, these weren't just ANY students at this university; these were the ones who had self-selected themselves to be students journalists; i.e., to be writers. Yet the entries were pathetic -- so bad that I didn't really think ANY of the entries deserved first prize, and I ended up awarding first place to one that barely deserved an "Honorable Mention," while leaving the Second Place and Honorable Mention awards unfilled.
Why were the entries so bad? Well, in addition to showing (often) a mediocre grasp of basics such as subject-verb agreement and the proper structure of parallel clauses, the entries almost universally failed to actually build a case. It's as if nobody has taught these kids that an opinion piece requires more than the mere spouting of opinions. Rank assertion followed rank assertion, as if to say: THIS IS MY OPINION AND IS VALUABLE BECAUSE, WELL, IT'S MINE! The essays contained very little attempt to persuade, to cite evidence and build on it, to actually develop an argument rather than to merely shout from the rooftops.
In the end, the op-ed piece to which I gave First Place was full of all sorts of leftish claptrap -- but at least the columnist made an attempt to build his case, to cite respected neutral authorities -- in short, to persuade. A couple of columnists, on the other hand, albeit not many, were conservatives. I agreed with virtually every word they wrote. But they made no attempt to defend or advance their causes based on anything other than their own God-given right to spout off. In short, their columns were full of opinion without reason. And not very well-expressed opinions, at that.
It was most depressing.
Scientists as well as politicians need to be able to explain themselves to an outside world, to put their discoveries into context, to engage others and to meld their sciences with the broader world of learning and practice so that their discoveries can be understood, valued, and best utilized. When even the writers can't write well, is it really a time to be teaching middle schoolers that a mono-focus on science and math is so highly valuable that communication skills and broader liberal learning go by the wayside?
All of which is to say that James Poulos is right. A great college professor of mine, Diane Yeager of Georgetown University, once wrote an essay for me whose argument was that education should inculcate "wonder, wisdom, and serendipitous knowledge." Hear, hear!
Re: Middle School Specialists
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 10:46AM
I'd give you the link, Dave, but the ceremony took place behind the velvet rope of TimesSelect. (Some award.) I trust the NYT can abide a little reminiscing:
Perhaps the most unusual conservative criticism of Bush comes from James G. Poulos at the American Spectator blog, who faults the president's plan to improve math and science education: "Our culture is not doomed but it is unraveling," he writes. "Building a professional army of scientists and mathematicians is precisely the wrong kind of educational emphasis required" to change that.
It was Weber who wept so preemptively over specialists without
spirit. That too many of our middle school voluptuaries without
heart can't get into good magnet schools is another missed
opportunity for a photo op and a bad speech.
Re: Middle School Specialists
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 10:35AM
James, You put that quite well. But what is this New York Times award?
Re: Middle School Specialists
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 10:29AM
Dave, this is the picture-perfect portrait of the hopeless and squandering and self-congratulatory official esteem I saw coming in the State of the Union when the New York Times bestowed upon me their Most Unusual Conservative Criticism Award. How many of these kids at our Thomas Jefferson Institutes of Warp Drive Studies can recite any of this redheaded stranger's famous lines, or conduct an educated conversation about what they might mean? For the sake of our culture -- that little thing called Western Civilization, which will unfortunately not be salvaged by adopting Chinese and Indian levels of technocratic proficiency -- the Parkland kids should put their Presidentially-plumped math and science skills to good use -- and build themselves a time machine.
Middle School Specialists?
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 9:49AM
President Bush visits the Parkland Magnet Middle School for Aerospace Technology today to discuss his American Competitiveness Initiative. The absurdity of the federal government promoting "competitiveness" aside, what is this school?
As best as I can glean from its website, like all magnet schools it attracts students with particular interests and skills. Such programs seem particularly well suited to high schoolers. The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is one well known and excellent magnet school in Northern Virginia. But why on earth would we ask 11-year-olds to specialize in aerospace technology? If college students need a balanced curriculum of the arts and sciences (and they do), then middle schoolers should also be generalists.
Heads Will Roll
Posted by on 4.18.06 @ 8:57AM
On the 100th anniversary of the All we know for sure is that the governor of ”Joaquin” was still staring out at visitors as recently as 100 years ago this morning – on April 18, 1906, when the great quake shook the jar loose from its moorings, and off went the head for good, into a permanent mythology from which it has never been retrieved. Yet even that isn’t the end of the story. As Steven Hayward writes in his
Monday, April 17, 2006
Leave It to the States
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 8:16PM
Georgia acted on immigration today. From the broad outlines of the Reuters article, this bill accomplishes at least two things: 1- Highlights the inability of the federal government to act on what is essentially a federal issue, 2- Advances the discussion in a constructive manner. Possibly a third: limits the extent to which illegals receive a free-ride from our social welfare state. Remember -- they're not just here to do jobs for which there is a demand (in the overall labor market... Americans will do them, but probably not at those wages), they're here for the services they don't get at home. Until they're documented and working within the law, they're not paying taxes. And that situation taxes the rest of us.
Your Tax Money at Work
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 6:53PM
Please remember the UN as you recover from the ordeal of tax day. We send the UN billions every year in dues and "voluntary" contributions to its many organizations.
By the way one very high-profile organization, the UN Disarmament Commission, has three new vice charimen: Uruguay, Chile and -- wait for it -- Iran.
Post-Roe America
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 5:36PM
USA Today looks at what abortion policy would look like if it were returned to the states. It's an interesting picture, but the authors are a little too attached to a Deeply Divided Nation storyline:
The result, according to this analysis, would be less a patchwork of laws than broad regional divisions that generally reinforce the nation's political split. All but three of the states likely to significantly restrict abortions voted for President Bush in 2004. All but four of the states likely to maintain access to abortion voted for Democrat John Kerry.How would those regional divisions "reinforce the nation's political split?" Wouldn't returning abortion to the states actually undermine red-blue polarization by removing a divisive social issue from national politics?
Pulitzers Are In
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 3:39PM
File this under the If You Care category: the Pulitzer folks have awarded the journalists who most undermined national security of the last year: James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times for the terrorist surveillance story, and Dana Priest of the Washington Post for the secret prisons story.
Well deserved: public service awards to the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Gulfport Sun Herald for their Hurricane Katrina coverage. Heck, the Times-Picayune staff evacuated its offices for weeks and still put out an impressive web product.
Intelligent Declassification
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 12:23PM
My old paper, the Press-Register in Mobile, Al, defends the president's so-called "leak" of classified information, in this editorial this past Saturday.
Credit Where It's Due
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 11:43AM
Just as I wail and gnash my teeth (see posts below) about the lack of a responsible Left, Michael Ledeen at NRO notes this new, encouraging development. Clearly, I don't agree with the overall worldview of the signers of this manifesto. But these sound like people with whom we can debate rationally, and with whom we can find common cause on some basic, underlying principles and on our love of these United States. May their rationality and civility find a way to crowd out the crassness and nutso anger of the Howard Dean Left.
Bad Language, Good Language
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 11:06AM
Countervailing the barbaric yawps of the blogosphere's sinister side are the remarkable Good Friday meditations composed by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, which are worth reading in full. Occasionally the Archbishop succeeds in identifying exactly the worst of postmodernity's worst ills. This timely precision is a victory for any religion. It is particularly so for Catholicism today.
But the rest of us win as well simply by hearing that such as this is, and can be, still publicly spoken: "our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society's incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness ... Today we seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family. There is a move to reinvent mankind, to modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God. ... Today bodies are constantly bought and sold on the streets of our cities, on the streets of our televisions, in homes that have become like streets."
I have worried for some time along with the enraged worryworts of the left -- but I worry about their panic itself. My long meditation on this Fear is posted here; in short, under the strain of a rude reality that will not leave us be, we the leisured postmodern West are headed for a crisis of identity that cannot be treated, as is our slavish habit, by therapy. Too few seem to understand this; even fewer seem to speak it. That the heirs of a battered and dissipated Christianity are among the loudest to speak on that count is startling as it is heartening.
Bad Language
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 10:33AM
As a post-script to a parenthetical comment in the blog post immediately below, it really is amazing that the Left so often resorts, in print (or cyberprint), to vulgarities and profanities to make their points. My LEft Wing blogger Maryscott O'Connor seems only too typical: The attitude seems to be, "who needs to bother with reason, with persuasion and with respectful dialogue when it's so much easier to spew F-words?" The number of words that had to be replaced in the Post story by the designation of "[expletive]" is truly astonishing. Somebody needs to tell these Lefties that crassness isn't an argument and it's not a political position, it's just a character defect.
Raging Id: The Post is a Finkel
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 10:26AM
Wlady, I was struck by the same paragraph you were struck by in the David Finkel front page WashPost article about the liberal blogger filled with rage (and with a seriously juvenile vocabulary, juveniles being the only ones unable to express themselves without resorting to vulgarities in every sentence), the paragraph in which FInkel pronounces it "notable" that the "direction" from which the "level of anger" is coming is the Left, which supposedly had previously been "polite" while the "inflammatory rhetoric" came supposedly from the right. Give me a break! This paragraph from Finkel is almost as bad as the story about a decade ago that pronounced the religious right (quoting from memory, so a word or two may be slightly off) "poor, uneducated, and easily led." For any self-respecting mainstream editor -- this is, after all, the front page of the Post, not a Style section piece where opinions sometimes can legitimately sneak into featur-ish stories) -- such paragraphs should sound huge warning bells. That this one slipped through is, again, yet another sign of institutional left-leaning bias in the "mainstream" media that is so pervasive that the reporters and editors can't even recognize that their outrageous biases are indeed matters of opinion as opposed to fact. The Post's ombudsman should "rip new ones" for both Finkel and his editor(s).
Romney's Heritage
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 9:23AM
To follow up on a Friday item, the Heritage Foundation has apparently worked for RomneyCare for some time now. Shawn Macomber, TAS expert on most things Mitt and gadfly of presidential hopefuls, says that Heritage helped write parts of the Massachusetts health care bill. When he asked Romney about the bill for his profile in our March issue, Romney immediately cited Heritage's support to bolster the legislation's conservative credentials.
Interestingly, Heritage is responding to criticism of the plan on its website. The tone is awfully defensive, touting the "Connector" (Heritage's brainchild), likened to CarMax in that "there are many different kinds of cars to choose from, all obtainable through one giant dealership." While that may send up red flags for free marketeers out there, how 'bout that individual mandate? Heritage and Romney have redubbed it the "personal responsibility mandate." By which they mean that residents of Massachusetts are now personally mandated to buy something they may not need.
And as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Romney didn't deregulate the key part of the Massachusetts insurance law: residents are still required to buy full coverage instead of a minimal "catastrophic" coverage.
The Heritage defense admits that Romney first considered the individual mandate "counterproductive and wrong" before rationalizing it. He, and Heritage, should have stuck with their gut instinct. Now they're both left holding the bag.
Dorgan-Reid-Abramoff, Again
Posted by on 4.17.06 @ 1:10AM
What have we here? Buried in Thomas Edsall's Washington Post's story yesterday on the newly released e-mail exchanges between Jack Abramoff and his helpmate at the General Services Administration David Safavian is a brief discussion of Safavian's efforts to help Abramoff obtain commercial access to the old Post Office building in Washington, D.C. In an e-mail on July 28, 2003, Safavian complained to Abramoff about a career government worker at the White House Office of Management and Budget who was apparently hindering any such transfer plans. Writes Safavian (the all-caps emphasis is his, the boldface mine): "The OMB staffer in the way...does not realize we have a legislative directive FROM CONGRESS regarding this matter. In fact, we had a letter sent to us by [Reps] Don Young [R-Alaska], Steve LaTourette [R-Ohio], [Sens.] Byron Dorgan [D-N.D.] and Harry Reid [D-Nev.]...."
Well what do you know! Here we have still further evidence that two key DEMOCRAT senators had apparently intervened in a way favorable to Jack Abramoff -- and no one at the Washington Post finds that fact newsworthy and deserving of further analysis?
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Supplement, War Warning 4: Khan confirms
Posted by on 4.16.06 @ 11:57PM
Regard this as a supplement to War Warning, part 4.
[This is a document under construction in at least twenty-five parts over the next many months. (Caveat: this is not for Queasy Anonymous.)]
1. Below find the most helpful and signals intelligence meaty part of the Broad/Sanger version, published NYT Monday 17, of the status of Iran's nuclear fuel production ability.
2. Significant is that A.Q. Khan is mentioned prominently. Best signals source points to Khan as the centerpiece of the new information with regard what Iran has and how soon it can convert its tech into weapons grade material for a production line of uranium warheads.
3. Last December, Khan provided a lengthy description of his work with Iran. Best signals source regards Khan as an honorable gentleman who gave up his lucrative opportunities to enable the building of the Arab bomb for clients that included not only Pakistan but also Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the ever ambitious North Korea.
4. The Khan network includes technicians from all these countires, chiefly Iraq, North Korea, Iran, working together to produce the production line for uranium based bombs. North Korea has plutonium bombs. But Iran wants the uranium bombs from a full production cycle.
5. Best signals source says that Iran likely has one or two or three hand made nuclear warheads. Handmade. See the Broad/Sanger mention of a document that "sketches out how to shape uranium into perfect spheres, the tell-tale shape for a primitive weapon."
6. China is the proliferator in chief. China knows -- the PLA is the source -- that Iran has the capability of producing uranium bomb production sooner, not later.
7. Iran works with Chinese bomb designs and with North Korean techs because it must build a weapon that fits the North Korean ballistic missile design warhead. The Fajar 3, recently launched in the wargames, has a North Korean warhead design.
8. Khan has fully cooperated, according to best signals source. Mushareff knows, Iran knows, North Korea knows, China knows, Russia knows, that the bomb construction in Iran is a consortium effort. Khan also knows that there is Saudi money in the pipeline for this success. (The Saudi princes bow to the Tehran apocalyptic vision. The Saudi princes pay both sides, pay all sides. The Saudi princes want to survive the UN-US-IRGC conflict.)
9. The suggestion is that the Natanz/Isfahan/Arak facilities are ruses. The suggestion is that the major effort is at another location: joined in by techs from all the above nationalisites and more (there are bomb-for-hire techs from many nations: South African source says that the rump of the Afrikaner bomb team may be in Iran) .
10. The suggestion also is that Iran knows that it needs time to produce the production line, and that it cannot risk the US coalition attacking first. Hence the germ of the Iran-will-pre-empt attack.
11. Note: Khan "sold" the Iranians nothing: he followed orders. The scale of the intrigue is Ummah wide and at least twenty years old.
12. Supplement necessarily incomplete. Am checking with best signals within twenty-four hours. Understand that the Broad/Sanger version serves as a confirmation that State and the National Security Apparatus are now working from good scripts. Khan is the key. Khan confirms Iran has the bomb apparatus and the bomb-makers. Khan confirms. Khan confirms. The Iran will have a self-produced nuclear warhead in five to ten year scenario does not appear sound when submitted to Khan Speaks.
"At the same time, intelligence reports circulating inside the American government, according to several officials who were granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, have raised questions of whether the Iranian government's decision to boast about its progress is part of an effort to hide more significant activity. They suspect that a clandestine program, if it exists, would concentrate on the P-2 because it can produce enriched uranium so fast. I.A.E.A. officials say solving the mystery of the P-2 shipments has become one of the most critical issues on which they need answers in the next two weeks, before Mr. ElBaradei issues a report to the United Nations Security Council on April 28. Other pressing questions include Iran's reluctance to discuss a document found by inspectors - one that the Iranians were not willing to let the inspectors take out of the country - that sketches out how to shape uranium into perfect spheres, the tell-tale shape for a primitive weapon. Investigators say that document, too, appears to have come from the Khan network. It is also unclear whether Dr. Khan sold the Iranians a complete Chinese-made bomb design similar to the one Libya turned over to the United States when it gave up its weapons program. Questions about other copies of the bomb design have been met with silence, in Iran and in Pakistan. "Frankly, I don't know whether he has passed these bomb designs to others," Mr. Musharraf said. Even under a loose form of house arrest for the past two years, he said, Dr. Khan "sometimes has been hiding the facts."
--Broad/Sanger, NYT, Mon 17 April
Random Sunday Notes
Posted by on 4.16.06 @ 7:49PM
The abuse we take. While talking to two of my favorite radio producers on Friday, someone called my cell phone which plays, “Off we Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder.” Which prompted the Marine to say, “Oh. Circus music.” In response, I am reduced to quoting Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the
It had to happen. According to this article, the feministas are riding to the defense of perky Katie Couric who apparently doesn’t like being called, “perky.” All of us who would call her “perky” are now condemned as chauvinist pigs. The inheritor of the Throne of Cronkite may be planning to change her billing to “Katherine Couric” to create a sense of gravitas. CBS should remember that the highest comedy is the result of one who doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously pretending to seriousness, such as the immortal Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Perky is and perky does, Katie. Stick with it.
And it’s useful to compare the different conditions of two authors: Salman Rushdie of “Satanic Verses” and Dan Brown of “The Da Vinci Code.” They have nothing in common other than having written books that are offensive to different religious groups. While Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, condemns society’s fascination with religious conspiracy theories, Rushdie remains under a fatwa of death originally issued by Ayatollah Khomenei in 1989. Some still insist on being confused as to the identity of the “religion of peace.”
And last but not least, an evil genius of my acquaintance has sent me this link to a 1970s funk song entitled, “Go Home You Foreign Communist.” It has some incomprehensible lyrics, but the bass work is great.
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