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Saturday, July 29, 2006
Email of the Day
29 Jul 2006 10:16 pm
A reader writes:
Shut up Sodomite. Gibson got drunk and said some vile things. Big deal. Marlon Brando called Jews kikes on National TV, Larry King show. and survived, Gibson will too. All the anti-Christian crap that comes out of Hollywood is much worse than anything Gibson said. And yes, Jews do run Hollywood. I'm making no excuses for anything Gibson said. Just pointing out the hypocrisy. Gibson has apologized and needs to get help for his drinking problem. You on the other hand are still the laughing stock of the blogosphere.
Gibson Confirms
29 Jul 2006 07:58 pm
... and apologizes. Money quote:
"Gibson also apologized for what he said were "despicable" statements he made to the deputies who arrested him early Friday morning on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. "I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested,"he said in a statement issued by his publicist. "I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse."
So the question now is: how many drunks immediately start ranting about Jews when they are arrested for DUI? What conceivable relevance does the statement
"F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."
have to do with anything? The only rational inference is that Gibson is an extreme anti-Semite, as his porn movie demonstrated, and as his refusal to disown his own father's deranged anti-Semitism proved.
McCain's Son
29 Jul 2006 07:39 pm
He enlists in the Marines. The family tradition continues ...
The Malibu Sheriff Confirms
29 Jul 2006 07:31 pm
According to Nikki Finke, Malibu's sheriff has confirmed that "the contents seem to be similar" between the posted police reports of Mel Gibson's DUI incident and the real thing. Anyone who saw "The Passion of the Christ" with open eyes cannot be surprised. The theocons, who touted the anti-Semitic sado-masochistic movie, have been extremely quick to insist no connection. Natch.
A Partitioned Iraq?
29 Jul 2006 07:25 pm
Here's a round-up of responses from around the world to Peter Galbraith's recent proposal.
"Super-AIDS"
29 Jul 2006 07:15 pm
The CDC just issued a report on the scare of last year when a New York man was believed to have contracted a new and virulent strain of HIV. He's doing fine. So are the two men with a similar strain.
A New GOP Low
29 Jul 2006 04:07 pm
Playing the anti-gay card against a promising Democratic candidate in Ohio ... because he and his wife have no children. What do you expect from the party of Rove?
Mel Gibson Self-Destructs?
29 Jul 2006 02:49 pm
Here's a page from what looks like a police report about Mel Gibson's alleged rants about "the Jews" after an arrest for drunk-driving, cited by the New York Daily News (click on the image below for a larger version) and originally reported by the celebrity news site, TMZ.com. This has not been independently confirmed:
Either this is an extremely elaborate hoax or it's the end of Gibson's career. It contains every anti-Semitic trope imaginable - from the darling of the Christianist right. These details, I repeat, haven't been independently confirmed and are from this website. Still, it's weird that the sheriff hasn't issued a mug-shot. TMZ alleges a police cover-up to remove the incendiary comments from the official record. Money quote from the Daily News:
Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."
The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"
The deputy became alarmed as Gibson's tirade escalated, and called ahead for a sergeant to meet them when they arrived at the station. When they arrived, a sergeant began videotaping Gibson, who noticed the camera and then said, "What the f*** do you think you're doing?"
A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?"
We're told Gibson took two blood alcohol tests, which were videotaped, and continued saying how "f****d" he was and how he was going to "f***" Deputy Mee.
Sugar tits?
(Image: from Gibson's forthcoming movie, Apocalypto.)
Policing the Language
29 Jul 2006 02:00 pm
It's a classic tactic for ideological nutcases and, of course, the French. Genocidal religious fanatic Ahmadinejad takes a whack. Stuff like this must surely help the younger Persians to take him unseriously.
Hugh Hewitt Asks ...
29 Jul 2006 01:43 pm
"Can we agree that all terrorists have some degree of mental illness?"
Er, no. I'd say the vast majority are completely sane and deploying violence against innocents to make a point, seize political power, gain territory or, increasingly these days, to praise Allah. All perfectly sane. That's the bottom line for understanding their evil. I take Hewitt's main point about our wanting to ascribe other motives, and second his refusal to do so. But I think it's important to remember that ethnic or, more often now, religious hatred is perfectly sane, if evil. The mass murder of Jews was carried about by completely coherent people on the whole. That also applies to an enraged Muslim gunman in Seattle. More biographical data here. A little eccentric, maybe. But sane.
Those Bike Theft Dudes
29 Jul 2006 01:41 pm
Their own video was great. But when the local Fox News team tried to recreate the story, things went a little awry ...
Dear Mrs Zarqawi ...
29 Jul 2006 10:31 am
I sent the late terrorist's mom a worried email. She was kind enough to reply.
The View From Your Window
29 Jul 2006 09:54 am
Sarasota, Florida, 6.15 am.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Danger
28 Jul 2006 09:27 pm
An email from Jerusalem:
There are times when the truth needs to be shouted from the rooftops; when we need to declare that this is not a two-sided argument. There is a guilty party that has attacked innocent citizens in a sovereign country and has forced their own countrymen to become refugees; orphans and widows. They need to be taken to task for it and they must not be allowed to bring disaster upon the world. Hezbollah is a scourge, and they are being aided, encouraged and armed by Syria and Iran. We need to be sure of this - for the sake of the truth and the world's future.
This is a war Iran started. I fear it has just begun. Its ultimate end is simple: the eradication of Israel and the murder of every Jew in the Middle East. Hezbollah and Ahmadinejad are very, very clear about this. And they are playing the p.r. game brilliantly. The president's press conference with Blair today struck me as revealing - and not in a good way. Bush is right on the basic issue. He grasps the nature of the enemy. But he is so out of his depth - rhetorically, strategically, politically, intellectually - that it is hard to have much confidence in his leadership. This is one reason why I couldn't endorse him for a second term. He is an incompetent. He is too incompetent to lead the West at this time. He is simply without the skills to navigate the very treacherous waters we are all now in. He is being outmaneuvered at every turn by wily enemies who are becoming more dangerous and emboldened by the day.
Bush, in a word, is overwhelmed. He has no idea what to do except return to the catechism of freedom versus terror, like an ideological security blanket. Of course that it what this is about. The trouble is: freedom is being defended by the incompetent and the clueless. In Bush's blank, bewildered eyes, you see the image of someone who is finally beginning to see reality. And it's something with which he simply cannot cope. Our enemies, moreover, see the weakness in the president and they are ruthlessly exploiting it. And we have more than two years left to survive.
The View From Your Window
28 Jul 2006 09:23 pm
Pasterelo, Andalusia, Spain, early evening.
War Crimes
28 Jul 2006 07:17 pm
The Bush administration is now desperately trying to protect itself from war crime prosecutions. I hope they fail.
Kos' Silence: Day 10
28 Jul 2006 07:07 pm
I missed Markos Moulitsas' explanation for avoiding any substantive discussion of the Israel-Hezbollah widening war. (Shouldn't we call it what it is, by the way? This is a war between Iran and Israel, started by Iran.) For fairness' sake, here it is, penned over ten days ago. It's beneath pathetic. But judge for yourself.
Question of the Day
28 Jul 2006 06:56 pm
"Are you now or have you ever been ... involved in community theater?"
Apparently that was the question military investigators asked a decorated Arab linguist servicemember before outing him and firing him from service to his country. I'm glad the military has its priorities, er, straight.
(Update: the best revenge for getting kicked out of the army because you're gay ... is taking the male lead in a community theater production of "Bye Bye Birdie." I'm really not making this up.)
Rational Lampoon
28 Jul 2006 06:50 pm
Dahlia Lithwick explains the rationale to uphold the ban on same-sex marriage in Washington State succinctly:
Only if the ban was enacted by insane people can it fail constitutional review.
Burt prejudiced people? No problem. Lithwick adds this rhetorical zinger:
Even the most deferential review should grapple with whether banning gay marriage really encourages straight marriage; whether there is something about marriage that magically lures heterosexual parents into its grasp — something that would evaporate if it were also extended to gay parents. Even deferential review that was also deaf, dumb, and blind would do more than just assert that gay marriage is illegal because kids "thrive" in straight homes. That claim is not just slightly over- or underinclusive, as the majority would have it. It's nonresponsive. Or, as the dissenters put it, better than I have: "denying same-sex couples the right to marry has no prospect of furthering any of those interests."
There is no rational relationship between banning gay citizens from civil marriage and promoting heterosexual marriage and the interests of children. There is no reason why you can't do both. At least I have yet to read a logical argument as to why you can't.
God and Body Hair
28 Jul 2006 06:21 pm
He's strongly against it. I really am going to hell.
Kos Still Silent
28 Jul 2006 02:34 pm
Go check out the absence of any substantive discussion about the Israel-Hezbollah war on Daily Kos's main pages.
Quote for the Day
28 Jul 2006 02:16 pm
"It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine. Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine," - Ayman al-Zawahiri, on al Jazeerah.
The connection between what is happening in Iraq and what is happening in Lebanon cannot, to my mind, be under-estimated. What else are the Shiite militias in Iraq gradually seizing the levers of government in Baghdad but a version of Hezbollah?
Bush's Polling Revival?
28 Jul 2006 01:59 pm
It doesn't exist.
YouTube for the Day
28 Jul 2006 01:51 pm
Know and revere: it's Colbert interiewing Eleanor Holmes Norton. You can't stop watching.
Lebanon's Future?
28 Jul 2006 12:18 pm
Michael Totten has an insightful post:
I spent a total of seven months in Lebanon recently, and I never could quite figure out what prevented the country from flying apart into pieces. It barely held together like unstable chemicals in a nitro glycerin vat. The slightest ripple sent Lebanese scattering from the streets and into their homes. They were far more twitchy than I, in part (I think) because they understood better than I just how precarious their civilized anarchy was. Their country needed several more years of careful nurturing during peace time to fully recover from its status as a carved up failed state.
By bombing all of Lebanon rather than merely the concentrated Hezbollah strongholds, Israel is putting extraordinary pressure on Lebanese society at points of extreme vulnerability. The delicate post-war democratic culture has been brutally replaced, overnight, with a culture of rage and terror and war.
What is happening in the Lebanon is a tragedy for the Lebanese, a horrible - and terrifying - conundrum for the Israelis, and a disaster for US policy in the wider struggle against Islamic extremism. And, oh yes, it is not, unfortunately, going to bring an end to Hezbollah...
“What will become of us?” is the question on everyone’s mind. No one can know what will happen after Israel lifts its siege and the temporary national unity flies apart into pieces. And it will fly apart into pieces. The only question is how far the pieces will fly and how hard they'll land.
The photograph above from Totten's website is of a Christian mob attacking a car in Beirut because it had a Hezbollah logo. It may be the future of Lebanon - a country just beginning to grope its way toward democracy and normalcy. Totten wants to return as soon as possible. His reporting and analysis is as good as anything in the MSM. Donate to him. He has a tip-jar on the site.
Assessing Iraq
28 Jul 2006 10:53 am
It's been two years since we had a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. Shouldn't this be done annually so we can know what the intelligence agencies actually believe is happening out there? It's important data for a national debate, whatever judgment you reach. And yet the administration refuses. What are they afraid of? Reality? Or the November elections? Ken Silverstein comments here. Meanwhile, here's some hard data from Brookings. A glass half-full assessment can be read here.
55 Fewer Arab Linguists in the Military
28 Jul 2006 10:37 am
The latest service member to be dismissed makes the number of soldiers trained to be Arab linguists and now fired for being gay 55. This dismissal even violated the basic rules of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," because the individual was closeted at work and was outed by an anonymous email campaign:
The U.S. Army recently discharged a highly regarded Arabic linguist who was the target of an anonymous email "outing" campaign. Former Sergeant Bleu Copas was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., and was a member of the prestigious 82nd Airborne Division. A decorated Sergeant who received impressive performance reviews, Copas also performed in the 82nd Airborne Chorus. His dismissal, under the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel, brings the total number of Arabic language specialists dismissed under the ban to at least 55. Neither Copas nor his command know who was the source of the email campaign.
We really aren't serious about winning this war, are we?
Another Teen Hanging
28 Jul 2006 09:44 am
This is another chilling story from Iran. This time, a 16-year-old girl is hanged for "sexual immorality" which, so far as we can tell, was a function of being raped continuously by a man three times her age. Money quote:
Being stopped or arrested by the moral police is a fact of life for many Iranian teenagers. Previously arrested for attending a party and being alone in a car with a boy, Atefah received her first sentence for "crimes against chastity" when she was just 13. Although the exact nature of the crime is unknown, she spent a short time in prison and received 100 lashes... [Subsequently], the moral police said the locals had submitted a petition, describing her as a "source of immorality" and a "terrible influence on local schoolgirls".
So she was arrested again. Then there's this moment in her "trial":
When Atefah realised her case was hopeless, she shouted back at the judge and threw off her veil in protest.
That earned her the noose. This is the enemy we face. And they do this in God's name.
Colbert and Holmes Norton
28 Jul 2006 02:53 am
I think I just witnessed the most brilliant and surreal televised political interview in my life. When it's up on YouTube or somewhere, would someone let me know? It was priceless. (Sign of the times: this fact is on Wikipedia's profile of Holmes Norton within fifteen minutes of its being broadcast.)
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Bush's Response to Hamdan
27 Jul 2006 09:23 pm
Marty Lederman has posted the text of the White House's draft legislation on military prisoners. It's a work in progress but its scope is clear:
On first glance, it does not appear to be limited to aliens, nor even to Al Qaeda and other groups and individuals covered by the September 18, 2001 AUMF -- it covers any and all "enemy combatants" against the U.S. and its allies in any conflict, anywhere and at any time.
Consider yourself warned. This kind of legislation, enabling the government to seize, imprison, and torture anyone, including U.S. citizens, without the legal protections accorded for centuries by Anglo-American principles of justice is deeply, deeply worrying.
They Also Threw Excrement
27 Jul 2006 07:24 pm
A mob attacked attendees at a gay pride meeting in Riga, Latvia, this week. More photos here. Check out the t-shirts.
Neo-fascists joined in, and the police said they couldn't do anything. Doug Ireland has a full report here.
Hamdan Shenanigans
27 Jul 2006 07:09 pm
Emaily Bazelon keeps score. Ponnuru is at his slippery worst again.
YouTube for the Day II
27 Jul 2006 06:14 pm
Republican? Moi? Another GOP candidate won't even use the label in his election campaign. (Hat tip: Ryan.)
Whopper of the Day
27 Jul 2006 06:03 pm
"The Prime Minister of Iraq and others have condemned Hezbollah and say they do not support them," - senator John McCain, yesterday.
He's beginning to sounds as detached from reality as the president is. There are also ominous signs that he may agree to the administration's position that their new military tribunals - which will allow for "coercive interrogation" - conform to Geneva Article 3. They don't. Are we witnessing the selling of McCain's soul for power? We can only pray we aren't. He's one of our last best hopes for the next presidency.
Washington's Governor on Marriage
27 Jul 2006 05:05 pm
She wants committed gay couples to have all the benefits of civil marriage:
After years of declining to state her personal views on the matter - and without using the words "civil union," - Gov. Chris Gregoire said at a press conference a few minutes ago that the state should provide gay and lesbian couples with the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexuals, but without actual marriage.
"As to my personal beliefs, Mike and I received the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic faith," she said. "State government provided us with certain rights and responsibilities, but the state did not marry us."
"I believe the state should provide these same rights and responsibilities to all citizens. I also believe the sacrament of marriage is between two people and their faith; it is not the business of the state."
The state legislature should get to work. Which was the not-so-subtle message of the court.
Quote for the Day II
27 Jul 2006 03:24 pm
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev. "But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."
"It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said. "I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture myself being anywhere else." - from the Washington Post today.
A New Coulter Low
27 Jul 2006 03:18 pm
The question becomes: why is she invited on talk shows? She's a vaudeville act of a deranged bigot.
The View From Your Window
27 Jul 2006 03:09 pm
Shelter Island, New York, 6.30 pm.
Losing Iraq III
27 Jul 2006 02:48 pm
Yesterday, I proposed that we look seriously at Peter Galbraith's plan for redeployment of U.S. troops to Kurdistan because Baghdad is lost and this administration has no serious plan to win it. Truth be told, the administration never had a serious plan to win Iraq as a whole - just a plan to destroy its previous regime. I missed it yesterday, but here's David Frum's rueful acceptance of the same idea. Yes, I expect locusts to appear and frogs to start falling from the sky. I wonder how long it will take for other conservatives to call even Frum an appeaser, defeatist, leftist, etc etc. He's just a realist. And the reality is grim.
Will Israel Soon Be Begging for a Cease-fire?
27 Jul 2006 01:56 pm
Given the difficulties of the military task, the lack of any sustainable basis for security under these tactics, and the need for the European powers for a potential buffer zone, the Israeli hope for a quick Hezbollah-destroying offensive looks increasingly bogged down. U.S. interests in the Middle East are equally not served by alienating every Arab or Muslim ally, including Maliki, in a war of attrition that will not accomplish the only worthwhile purpose: serious stability and border security. Greg Djerejian has more here:
My point? We must remain very focused on reducing the winds in the sails of radical Islamist groups like al-Qaeda, but our basic carte blanche to Israel these past weeks, and our total conflation of Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and seemingly every other group under the sun that we don't care for in the Middle East - is not only leading to far too simplistic foreign policy analyses among too many in the Beltway - but also, more important, serving as recruiting sergeant for more radicalized Islamists to proliferate, not only in the region, but in Europe and perhaps even the United States itself.
There will come a time when the destruction of Southern Lebanon and the inability to remove Hezbollah by force will demand either re-occupation of Southern Lebanon by Israel, or an international force. Time is running out for the former option. Given our other urgent task in the Middle East - finding a way to prevent Iraq descending into all-out civil war - involving allies in the fight against Hezbollah is increasingly vital. A cease-fire is needed, sooner rather than later.
McCain on Signing Statements
27 Jul 2006 01:23 pm
Pathetic, craven Bush-base pandering. More conservative outrage on Bush's attempt to unilaterally reorder the constitutional balance here.
Quote for the Day
27 Jul 2006 01:21 pm
"The plaintiffs in this case represent the ever-growing diversity of the openly gay community in Washington. They are teachers, attorneys, ministers, and foster parents. In their everyday lives they are bosses, coworkers, neighbors, clients, parents, friends, and volunteers. It is in these seemingly mundane, everyday roles that the discrimination imposed by the DOMA is deeply felt, but it is nowhere more wounding than in their very homes. Unless the concept of equal rights has meaning there, it has little meaning anywhere," - Justice Bobbe J. Bridge, in the Washington State court 5 - 4 ruling against equality in civil marriage. Many of the decisions in the majority relied entirely on deference to the legislature.
It was a close decision, with the more powerful and impassioned arguments in the dissents; and may well generate a legislative approach to granting more benefits to gay couples that inch closer and closer to marriage rights. Dale Carpenter has an excellent legal analysis here. Money quote:
To the state legislature, the message seems to be this: “Get moving on addressing the hardships faced by gay couples and their children, some of which we’ve listed for you. You don’t have to give them marriage and maybe not even all of the rights of marriage, but something needs to be done. If you don’t act, we might.”
To gay-marriage litigants, the message seems to be this: “Go to the legislature and see what can be done about the sorts of problems you’ve identified and that we agree exist. If the legislature is unresponsive, come back to us not with a claim for the status of marriage, but with a remedial claim for the benefits and protections of marriage for your families.”
My guess is that this dual message was necessary to get the five votes needed to uphold the state’s marriage laws.
California and New Jersey are the next battlegrounds. California has already passed marriage rights in both state houses, and the court is mulling. Will the court over-ride the legislature in that state? And if they do, will extreme judicial restrainters cry foul?
YouTube for the Day
27 Jul 2006 03:35 am
How the Jews did 9/11 - from an Egyptian music video.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Bush vs Geneva
26 Jul 2006 06:55 pm
This president is still determined to remove the United States from baseline protections of the Geneva protections. John Yoo is unrepentant:
"This draft shows that the executive branch doesn’t think the Supreme Court got the questions on the Geneva Conventions right in Hamdan."
What the administration thinks, of course, is irrelevant. The court has ruled that Article 3 applies. If it applies, the following would be impermissible:
The bill would also bar 'statements obtained by the use of torture' from being introduced as evidence, but evidence obtained during interrogations where coercion was used would be admissible unless a military judge found it 'unreliable.'
So we're back to Yoophemisms. 'Torture" versus "coercive interrogation techniques." The standards of Article 3 clearly bar all of it. And so you see this president asking the Congress to withdraw from Geneva. That's what this means. And we have to make sure the American public understands that.
YouTube for the Day
26 Jul 2006 05:19 pm
How to steal a bike - in plain sight in daylight in crowded urban settings. Just bring equipment and act really, really suspicious. No one will ever stop you.
The Glibness of Rumsfeld
26 Jul 2006 03:42 pm
His detachment from his own responsibility is breathtaking. The glibness with which he describes tha mass slaughter of innocents in a country whose security he is responsible for is astonishing. Check this transcript out. Money quote:
Q: Is the country closer to a civil war?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is - there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a - it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.
His relevance to allowing this to happen is as overwhelming as his irrelevance is today. He's treating one of the biggest military fiascoes in recent history as something to debate at night, the way one would discuss the merits of an interesting movie. Greg Djerejian comments here. The man is a disgrace.
Poseur Alert
26 Jul 2006 03:13 pm
"In the canon of great American duos, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo - better known as hip-hop’s paragons of icy minimalism, the Neptunes - rank somewhere between Laurel & Hardy and Hall & Oates," - Sean Fennessey, Pitchfork Media.
Washington's Court Says No
26 Jul 2006 03:00 pm
It's the procreation argument again (PDF file). I need time to read the decision and I'm on a deadline. On a more positive front, Democratic gubernatorial front-runner in New York, Eliot Spitzer, said the following in a rambunctious debate last night:
"I think same sex marriage should be legal. I will propose a bill to permit that to be the case in the state of New York."
And so the courts begin to retreat and the legislative process gains ground. Recall that the most populous state in the country has already passed marriage equality in its legislature. In some ways, a court pause before a looming legislative triumph may be good news.
The View From Your Window
26 Jul 2006 02:43 pm
Nashville, Tennessee, 8 pm.
Fact of the Day
26 Jul 2006 02:31 pm
"In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel," - from Michael Gordon's account in the NYT. Because of Rumsfeld's pride, in order to attempt to secure Baghdad, we will have to abandon much of Anbar to the insurgents. Hey, we don't need more troops, do we?
Washington's Hottest
26 Jul 2006 01:33 pm
Yep: the most beautiful people on Capitol Hill have been unveiled. Don't get too excited. Nobody asked him, but Boozhy has some strong opinions.
"Phase II"
26 Jul 2006 11:52 am
That's the euphemism du jour:
Mr. Hadley, the national security adviser, said the failure of the initial plan [to secure Baghdad] forced the administration to move to what he called 'Phase II.' But other officials said there was no Phase II in the previous plan. 'This is more like Plan B,' said one of Mr. Hadley's associates, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal policy matters. 'Six weeks ago, we were talking about pulling American troops back from the city streets, not putting more of them out there.'
The good news is that someone in the White House, for a change, seems more concerned with doing what is necessary for a minimal brake on the civil war rather than more domestic spin. I was also glad to hear the president describe the security situation in Baghdad as "terrible." It's better than denial.
Kos, Atrios, Hezbollah
26 Jul 2006 11:20 am
A reader wants to know what the silence is all about:
The radio silence on Lebanon from the left-wing blogosphere (i.e. Kos, Atrios) is fascinating, and your reader from the 'Liberal Blogs and Israel' post had it about right. To sympathize with Hezbollah would expose these bloggers to a potentially career-damaging backlash. However, to take the mainstream Democratic line of say, Chuck Schumer, would be to seriously alienate a chunk of their readership.
And for sure, Hezbollah sympathizers do exist on the left. One only has to listen to KPFA, the 'free speech network' broadcast out of Berkeley to get a taste of unfiltered Hezbollah propaganda, in which Mullah Nasrallah is characterized as the new Che Guevara. The Weekly Standard might have done better to listen to some of these transcripts, rather than to desperately fish around the diaries on Kos.
I've actually been skeptical of beating up on Kos on this. But I just read the last three pages of posts on the main site, and there's only one even vaguely alluding to the crisis with Hezbollah. That's just plain weird. I know we're not supposed to notice silence on blogs - people are free to ignore all sorts of stories. But the silence can be instructive (hey, I studied with a Straussian). This is Atrios' second-hand excuse:
I've said nothing about war in Lebanon or Ethiopia because I have nothing to add, and also because - as you may or may not be aware - the United States is actually involved in a hugely bloody war right now, and this is more of a pressing concern to me personally. I don’t know the secret formula for unshitting any of these beds - I promise I wouldn't be shy if I did - but I currently only have to sleep in one of them; and, as it turns out, that's the one bed where I actually have some miniscule chance of influencing the situation. So that’s my concern.
This would make sense if there were no connections between Hezbollah and Iran and Iraq. Are lefties unable to grapple with complex regional wars? Nah. They're just wimping out. My reader gives one plausible reason why. Is there a more persuasive one?
Another State?
26 Jul 2006 10:16 am
This blog predicts that Washington State's highest court will rule on marriage rights for gay couples today. So does this one. The decision is due at 8 am. The text of the decision should be available here by 11 am.
Steele vs Bush
26 Jul 2006 01:44 am
Maryland's black GOP candidate for the Senate describes the Republican label as a "scarlet letter." His polling cannot be encouraging.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Butt Out, Markos
25 Jul 2006 08:50 pm
A Connecticut reader vents:
Reading the interview with Kos made me want to throw up. As a Connecticut native (and Lieberman supporter), I wonder where he gets off trying to play God in our elections. He says, "I don't think Joe Lieberman would have anything to worry about had he tended to his constituents back home. His job is to represent the people of Connecticut." What kind of view of Connecticut's politics does he think he has from San Francisco, exactly? Representing "the people of Connecticut" is exactly what Lieberman has been doing, which is why he is crushing Lamont and the GOP candidate in a 3-way general election with over 50% of the vote. What Kos wants, of course, is for Lieberman to represent his vision of what the Democratic Party should be. He goes on to say that Lieberman would not be abiding "by the democratic will of the people of Connecticut" if he loses the primary and wins the general election. Right, because "people of Connecticut" = "20% of Connecticut's registered Democrats who turn out for the closed primary in the middle of the summer." Spare me.
Axsmith's Revenge
25 Jul 2006 06:57 pm
Fired by the CIA for opposing waterboarding on her classified blog, Christine Axsmith has done the sane thing and started a public blog. Money quote:
What can I say? Waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong.
And the United States almost certainly continues to use waterboarding. Except that none of us is actually allowed to know whether the Bush administration practises torture.
YouTube for the Day
25 Jul 2006 06:47 pm
When a legal deposition goes off the rails ... (Warning: lively language.)
Galbraith's Proposal
25 Jul 2006 05:28 pm
A reader asks:
Does it really mean losing Iraq? The goal of a unified Iraqi government as originally envisioned may be lost - but three separate confederated states bound by shared geography, culture, and a central city (Baghdad) may be possible. I think Galbraith raises a possible way of achieving that. The Shiite areas if secured and made independent may not automatically spin into Iran' s clutches (Iranian mullahs have a hard enough time controlling Iran and don't underestimate the Arab-Persian differences). Provided Sunni areas do not become an al Qaeda haven - I could see us working out some sort of compromise there too.
I agree Rumsfeld and Cheney screwed this up - but we have to deal with what we have now, not what we had several years ago.
I'm loath to predict anything at this point. But Galbraith's proposal does seem to me a sane and least worst one. And the result, if successful, may not be so bad.
Giuliani in Drag
25 Jul 2006 04:54 pm
I've long been struck by the memory of president Bush's encounter with a transgendered member of his own Yale class at a reunion. Bush intuitively understood that transgendered men and women deserve respect and acceptance:
Louise Casselman, who was at that White House Yale reunion with her husband, Kirk Casselman and a Bay Area contingent, says that although Yale was still all-male in 1968, one alum has since had a sex-change operation. "You might remember me as Peter when we left Yale," said the woman upon coming face to face with the president. George W. didn't pause for a moment, reports Casselman, grabbed the alumna's hand, and said "Now you've come back as yourself." Casselman says the host was generous and open.
That is, of course, how civilized, educated people behave. Now compare it to the sophomoric 
prejudice proudly displayed at National Review. You have a cover-story whose image is Rudy Giuliani in drag as a symbol of everything "conservatives" would find distasteful in a Giuliani candidacy. To be clear here: a straight man dressing up as a woman for pantomime purposes is just ... a straight guy comfortable with his masculinity having fun. It's been done for ever. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation or being transgendered or even cross-dressing as a form of personal expression. It's just high jinks. There's no conceivable reason why any sane conservative would object to a leader having a good time, and not taking himself too seriously. And yet Kathryn-Jean Lopez believes it's
a great image to get to the heart of conservative misgivings about him.
What can she mean? That Giuliani is publicly tolerant of and comfortable with gay people and supports civil unions for gay couples? But what does drag have to do with that? Does K-Lo equate all gay love with drag? John Podhoretz, scion of New York Jewish intellectuals, speaks for the Christian heartland:
I understand that liberals think conservatives are so stupid they won't be able to draw a distinction between a stunt and the real thing. But not conservatives themselves!
Fair enough - but does JPod therefore mean that the "real thing" would indeed be a problem? Or should be? And what is, for JPod, the "real thing"? Someone who is transgendered? Is that something inherently offensive to "conservatives"? Notice we're not talking about any policy position here - just a prejudice toward a tiny minority of people who are different from the rest of us. Empirically, there may well be a case that such a person could never command any popular support. But NR seems to go further than that. Rather than resisting such prejudice, they accept and foment it, deploying images designed to exploit homophobia for political ends. JPod's contempt for gay people as such is demonstrable. And this is what conservatism, in some quarters, has now sadly become.
Sadr vs Israel
25 Jul 2006 02:52 pm
The latest nightmare scenario from Iraq. I'm told Maliki will also make a strongly anti-Israel comment in Washington today. He's demanding an end to the impunity of U.S. troops and a firm opposition to Israel's actions in Lebanon. It's going to be an interesting day.
Bill vs Hillary
25 Jul 2006 02:44 pm
He's much more popular than she is in the latest Gallup poll - and her unfavorability ratings haven't budged much in six years. 52 percent of men have an unfavorable view of her. And the Dems want her to run? They can't be serious, can they?
The View From Your Window
25 Jul 2006 02:41 pm
Little Rock, Arkansas, 10 pm.
Kos Unplugged
25 Jul 2006 02:11 pm
The Jake Tapper interview.
Losing Iraq II
25 Jul 2006 01:27 pm
In Hitch's words, there was never a more valiant supporter of regime change in Iraq than Peter Galbraith. Like many of us repelled by the tyranny of Saddam and concerned about the possibility of WMDs in the hands of terrorists, Galbraith supported the war. He now sees, as I think we now are all 
forced to acknowledge, that the only hope for a half-way stable Iraq in the near term is among the Kurds. The Iraqi civil war - enabled and abetted by Bush's, Cheney's and Rumsfeld's criminal negligence and arrogance - is unstoppable now. Every window of opportunity we have had has been squandered. The fundamental mismatch between extraordinary ends and cheap, half-assed, brutal means has led us to this impasse.
The great danger is that withdrawal could mean the establishment of an al Qaeda redoubt in the Sunni regions and a Shiite enclave in the South, allied with Iran. Given the empirical data from Iraq, it seems profoundly unlikely that we can stop the latter. But we might be able to forestall the former, by air-power and a base among the Kurds. I'd like to read a more through analysis of Galbraith's argument - especially the risks it entails. But it is the most realistic proposal I've read in a while - and deserves serious consideration. Given the manifest negligence of the president and defense secretary, who can have any confidence in a more ambitious strategy? They are the architects of a fiasco far more dangerous than Vietnam, and far more avoidable. Money quote from Michiko Kakutani's review of Thomas Ricks' new book, "Fiasco":
An after-action review from the Third Infantry Division underscores the Pentagon's paucity of postwar planning, stating that "there was no guidance for restoring order in Baghdad, creating an interim government, hiring government and essential services employees, and ensuring that the judicial system was operational." And an end-of-tour report by a colonel assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority memorably summarized his office's work as "pasting feathers together, hoping for a duck."
Observing this, many of us have gone from denial to despair to grim hope to acceptance that the scale of the task was greater than even the pessimists foresaw and the means deployed to achieve it almost pathetically unequal to the goal. I guess a miracle may eventually emerge. Maybe a de facto Iraqi partition after more bloodshed and sectarian massacres may pave the way for a more peaceful future. We can hope. But Baghdad is fast turning into what Beirut once was - a cualdron of unrestrained sectarian hate and violence, fomented by a few empowered by the incompetence in Washington. I'm left with contrition at my own small contribution to the misunderstanding; and abiding, deep, and furious anger at the administration who conducted this war with such arrogance and negligence. This president's betrayal of the Iraqis, his betrayal of the armed forces, his betrayal of those who supported him, is profound. Some of his supporters will forgive him. This much I'm sure of: History won't.
Losing Iraq
25 Jul 2006 10:34 am
I fear the cycle of civil war is now beyond our control - or anyone's control. Here's an email from an American soldier in Northern Iraq about the fast-deteriorating situation:
Baghdad has descended into complete anarchy, as near as I can tell. We have police investigators in Northern Iraq who are scared to drive down there to attend an IPS investigator's course for fear that they will be stopped by Sunni or Shia checkpoints and killed. And these guys are police! I imagine the situation is terrible for ordinary citizens.
This is the dark side of the big shift in the U.S. strategy/presence over the last year. As we've reduced our forces, disengaged from the cities, and consolidated on massive super-FOBs like Balad and Camp Victory, we have lost the ability to impose our will on the streets of Iraq. At this point, I don't know how effective U.S. forces can/will be in imposing order. We just don't have the combat power, nor the presence in the city, nor the right mix of constabulary and civil affairs units. It's frustrating.
And so one of the biggest military fiascoes in American history lurches toward another down-draft.
Monday, July 24, 2006
An Inconvenient Truth
24 Jul 2006 08:50 pm
I finally saw the Gore movie yesterday. It's thoroughly persuasive about the reality of global warming and the contribution of carbon dioxide emissions to it. I'd recommend it strongly to anyone. Its blindspots were, however, obvious. No mention is made anywhere of the fact that Al Gore was a very powerful vice-president for eight years in a critical period for this issue. His fulminations against others' indifference would have been a little more credible if he'd at least addressed and explained his own failure to do anything when he was able to. It's also striking that Gore could have used the movie to argue for a serious increase in the gas tax - and he didn't. The movie's final recommendations - recycle! write your congressman! ride a bike! reset your thermostat! - were truly lame after the alarm of the rest of the movie. I think a serious gas tax and a tough increase in mandatory fuel economy standards in the U.S. are essential to prompting the technological breakthroughs that alone can ameliorate this. And yet Gore balked. Just like he did when he was in power.
King George Watch
24 Jul 2006 07:35 pm
If you thought the notion that this president is a threat to the constitution is a "fringe" or "hysterical" notion, then a bipartisan panel the American Bar Association must now be "fringe" and "hysterical". His expansive and substantive use of "signing statements" to gut the separation of powers is unprecedented. Well, not quite. There are precedents, just not in America:
The issue has deep historical roots, the panel said, noting that Parliament had condemned King James II for nonenforcement of certain laws in the 17th century. The panel quoted the English Bill of Rights: 'The pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.'
King George indeed.
The Summer Accessory of 2006
24 Jul 2006 06:46 pm
Greg Gutfield unveils the latest in trendy beachwear.
Conservatives and Israel
24 Jul 2006 06:20 pm
A reader writes:
I disagree with the Adesnik theory on the media and Israel. The absence of real debate about Israel's bombing of Lebanon (other than how loudly should the U.S. cheer it on) is as much a result of the fact that any criticism of Israel’s tactics is quickly labeled 'viciously anti-Israel' (at best) by all but a fringe. I'm a conservative supporter of Israel who thinks Israel has the right to respond to Hezbollah but fears the scale of the response is a tragic mistake. I recently saw a quote from Henry Seigman: "Israel's political and military leaders remain addicted to the notion that whatever they have a right to do, they have a right to overdo." I think there is some truth in that. We so often demand forbearance of Israel's neighbors, but I do not recall (since maybe Eisenhower) where we've demanded it of Israel (by the way, for Netanyahu to compare the relatively ineffectual shelling of Northern Israel to the Holocaust trivializes the Holocaust and does us all a disservice).
I wish media outlets like yours – where sensible conservative discussion can be seen on any subject – could also discuss the possibility that Israel's tactics might play directly into the hands of Ahmadinajad, and that the U.S.'s knee-jerk support of the bombing undercuts our "continued outreach to Iranian [Iraqi, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Palestinian, etc.] civil society". Israel is unfairly made the scapegoat for so many of the region's tyrants and maniacs. But the Israeli hardliners (like our own neo-cons) make it much easier for them to do so. The notion spread by the neo-cons that the "road to peace in Jerusalem runs through Bagdad" is more likely the opposite. But it's going to take more honest criticism of all parties in the region including Israel, for that to happen.
I certainly don't believe that all criticism of Israel is illegitimate. But in this case, Hezbollah's Islamist ideology, its threat to the fragile Lebanese government, its initiation of hostilities, and its close links to Tehran make me reluctant to condemn any attempt to degrade its military potential as much as possible. I'm heartened by the fact that many Arab countries are uncomfortable with Hezbollah as well - the Sunni-Shiite division is one the West should exploit as shrewdly and relentlessly as possible to further our interests in the region. I'm also happy to see that this small, yet brutal war may