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Word has spread in Democratic circles that Sen. Joseph Lieberman no longer conditions a presidential candidacy in 2004 on plans by Al Gore, his 2000 running mate. Contrary to Lieberman's past statements, he would not automatically drop out if the former vice president runs again.
This is probably not the end of the story, expecially if the former Veep decides to actively contest for the 2004 nomination. It does indicate, however, that either Lieberman is fairly certain Gore won't run, or that he believes Gore is weakened enough it won't matter if he does. The Democrats's one hope of unity in 2004 is for Gore to reclaim the nomination essentially by acclaimation. Otherwise, the Democrats, in far greater internal disarray than is generally realized, will likely indulge themselves in one of their periodic bloodlettings.
"I have lived with my husband for nearly a quarter of a century, and I swear that during that entire time I knew no more than a week's happiness... I am the mother of six children, four girls and two boys, and they are all in school. My husband thinks that the only reason for marriage is increasing the birth rate of the nation of Muhammad. Were I not already 55, he wouldn't have settled for six children; if he could, he would multiply their number several times over!..." "After the honeymoon, my husband, may Allah forgive him, issued another directive: Laughter was prohibited in our apartment... Laughter, he told me, was a trait of Satan, who aims solely to corrupt believing Muslims!"
The word "chilling" has been thrown about a lot lately among the punditocracy, generally to describe things like plastic explosives, which could only chill those who've never watched a movie or television, but it rightly fits this horrific tale of the life of an Egyptian wife.
This is the Christian fundamentalist whacko's "keep them barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen" magnified a hundred times, the ratio between a mosquito bite and melanoma. Any woman (or man) who can read this article in its entirety and still find sympathy for men like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar - and their followers - who practice this brand of religious hysteria is not only mindless, but heartless.
...it will work with the country's Big Three car companies to accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Success in that admittedly ambitious endeavor could remove cars and trucks from the energy and environmental debates altogether.
Or maybe not. Steven Den Beste points out that, since hydrogen does not generally exist by itself in nature, it must be "cracked" from some other source, and that cracking takes energy. Den Beste posits three sources: methane, which he considers unlikely, nuclear, which really would be environmentally friendly, but is impossible because of public perceptions and organized opposition, and - wait for it - coal. Yes, if we switch to hydrogen fuel cell autos, we'll be building a lot of coal-powered hydrogen plants to make those cars go. Doesn't sound quite so "environmentally friendly" any more, does it?
Citing the failure of House Republicans to scrutinize an energy task force led by Vice President Cheney earlier this year, Democrats on the House Governmental Reform Committee are planning to launch their own investigation into dealings between the Bush administration and the Enron Corp.
Although as the minority party Democrats cannot call hearings or subpoena witnesses, they say that has not stopped them in the past from conducting effective investigations by using the General Accounting Office, congressional requests, and their special investigations division.
This will be Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) operation. Here are the Enron donations involved:
House Governmental Reform Committee
Republicans Dan Burton, IN 0 Benjamin A. Gilman, NY 2,000 Constance A. Morella, MD 1,000 Christopher Shays, CT 0 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, FL 2,500 John M. McHugh, NY 0 Stephen Horn, CA 0 John L. Mica, FL 4,500 Thomas M. Davis III, VA 1,000 Mark E. Souder, IN 0 Joe Scarborough, FL 0 Steven C. LaTourette, OH 550 Bob Barr, GA 0 Dan Miller, FL 500 Doug Ose, CA 0 Ron Lewis, KY 0 Jo Ann Davis, VA 0 Todd Russell Platts, PA 0 Dave Weldon, FL 500 Chris Cannon, UT 500 Adam Putnam, FL 0 Butch Otter, ID 0 Ed Schrock, VA 0 John J. Duncan, Jr., TN 0
Democrats Henry A. Waxman, CA 0 Tom Lantos, CA 0 Major R. Owens, NY 0 Edolphus Towns, NY 500 Paul E. Kanjorski, PA 500 Patsy T. Mink, HI 0 Carolyn B. Maloney, NY 0 Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC 0 Elijah E. Cummings, MD 0 Dennis J. Kucinich, OH 0 Rod R. Blagojevich, IL 0 Danny K. Davis, IL 0 John F. Tierney, MA 0 Jim Turner, TX 3,500 Thomas H. Allen, ME 0 Janice D. Schakowsky, IL 0 Wm. Lacy Clay, MO 0 Diane E. Watson, CA 0
Independent Bernard Sanders, VT 0
It makes political sense to use Waxman's minority committee as a spearhead againt Bush and Enron, since of all the bodies mentioned as possible or probable investigators, this group seems least affected by the possibility of Enron donation "blowback." Of 18 Democratic committee members, only 3 have accepted campaign contributions from the failed energy giant.
BAG THE SWAG: More data on Enron contributions: At least four congressional committees have been reported as initiating investigations of the fallen energy giant; Mike Oxley's House Financial Services Committee, Bernie Tauzin's House Energy and Commerce Committee, Byron Dorgan's Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on consumer affairs, and Joe Lieberman's Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Of the four committee leaders, all have received Enron donations:
James A. Leach, IA - 0 Marge Roukema, NJ, Vice Chair - 0 Doug Bereuter, R-NE 10,000 Richard H. Baker, R-LA 800 Spencer Bachus, AL 0 Michael N. Castle, R-DE 500 Peter T. King, R-NY 300 Edward R. Royce, R-CA 3,500 Frank D. Lucas, R-OK 2,500 Robert W. Ney, R-OH 500 Bob Barr, GA 0 Sue W. Kelly, NY 0 Ron Paul, R-TX 500 Paul E. Gillmor, OH 0 Christopher Cox, CA 0 Dave Weldon, R-FL 500 Jim Ryun, R-KS 1,250 Bob Riley, AL 0 Steven C. LaTourette, R-OH 550 Donald A. Manzullo, R-IL 500 Walter B. Jones, NC 0 Doug Ose, CA 0 Judy Biggert, IL 0 Mark Green, R-WI 1,500 Patrick J. Toomey, PA 0 Christopher Shays, CT 0 John B. Shadegg, R-AZ 1,000 Vito Fossella, R-NY 3,000 Gary G. Miller, CA 0 Eric Cantor, R-VA 250 Felix J. Grucci, Jr., NY 0 Melissa A. Hart, R-PA 500 Shelley Moore Capito, WV 0 Mike Ferguson, NJ 0 Mike Rogers, MI 0 Patrick J. Tiberi, R-OH 500 John J. LaFalce, NY 0 Barney Frank, MA 0 Paul E. Kanjorski, D-PA 500 Maxine Waters, CA 0 Carolyn B. Maloney, NY 0 Luis V. Gutierrez, IL 0 Nydia M. Velázquez, NY 0 Melvin L. Watt, NC 0 Gary L. Ackerman, D-NY 3,500 Ken Bentsen, D-TX 42,750 James H. Maloney, CT 0 Darlene Hooley, D-OR 1,950 Julia Carson, IN 0 Brad Sherman, D-CA 500 Max Sandlin, D-TX 3,000 Gregory W. Meeks, NY 0 Barbara Lee, CA 0 Frank Mascara, PA 0 Jay Inslee, WA 0 Janice D. Schakowsky, IL 0 Dennis Moore, KS 0 Charles A. Gonzalez, D-TX 500 Stephanie Tubbs Jones, OH 0 Michael E. Capuano, MA 0 Harold E. Ford, Jr., TN 0 Rubén Hinojosa, TX 0 Ken Lucas, KY 0 Ronnie Shows, MS 0 Joseph Crowley, NY 0 William Lacy Clay, MO 0 Steve Israel, NY 0 Mike Ross, AR 0 Bernard Sanders, VT* 0
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Michael Bilirakis, R-Florida 4,400 Joe Barton, R-Texas 26,659 Fred Upton, Michigan 0 Cliff Stearns, R-Florida 2,300 Paul E. Gillmor, Ohio 0 James C. Greenwood, R-Pennsylvania 1,000 Christopher Cox, California 0 Nathan Deal, Georgia 0 Steve Largent, R-Oklahoma 4673 Richard Burr, R-North Carolina 1,000 Ed Whitfield, R-Kentucky 2,000 Greg Ganske, R-Iowa 2,000 Charlie Norwood, R-Georgia 1,500 Barbara Cubin, R-Wyoming 5,000 John Shimkus, R-Illinois 4,250 Heather Wilson, R-New Mexico 4,500 John B. Shadegg, Arizona 0 Charles "Chip" Pickering, R-Mississippi 3,750 Vito Fossella, R-New York 3,000 Roy Blunt, R-Missouri 2,500 Thomas Davis, R-Virginia 1,000 Ed Bryant, R-Tennessee 1,500 Robert Ehrlich, Maryland 0 Steve Buyer, R-Indiana 1,000 George Radanovich, R-California 1,500 Charles F. Bass, R-New Hampshire 2,000 Joseph Pitts, Pennsylvania 0 Mary Bono, R-California 500 Greg Walden, R-Oregon 3,500 Lee Terry, R-Nebraska 4,500
John D. Dingell, Michigan 0 Henry A. Waxman, California 0 Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts 0 Ralph M. Hall, Texas 0 Rick Boucher, Virginia 0 Edolphus Towns, D-New York 500 Frank Pallone Jr., D-New Jersey 3,500 Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio 2,000 Bart Gordon, D-Tennessee 1,500 Peter Deutsch, Florida 0 Bobby L. Rush, D-Illinois 1,000 Anna G. Eshoo, D-California 1,000 Bart Stupak, Michigan 0 Eliot L. Engel, New York 0 Tom Sawyer, D-Ohio 500 Albert R. Wynn, D-Maryland 125 Gene Green, D-Texas 4,750 Karen McCarthy, D-Missouri 500 Ted Strickland, D-Ohio 500 Diana DeGette, Colorado 0 Tom Barrett, Wisconsin 0 Bill Luther, D-Minnesota 2,000 Lois Capps, California 0 Mike Doyle, Pennsylvania 0 Chris John, D-Louisiana 2,000 Jane Harman, D-California 500
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on consumer affairs
Democrats
Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota, Chairman 3500 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia 2,000 Ron Wyden, Oregon 4,000 Barbara Boxer, California 0 John Edwards, North Carolina 0 Jean Carnahan, Missouri 1,000 Bill Nelson, Florida 1,000
Republicans
Peter G. Fitzgerald, Illinois 2,038 Conrad Burns, Montana 23,200 Sam Brownback, Kansas 2,750 Gordon Smith, Oregon 18,000 John Ensign, Nevada 7,500 George Allen, Virginia 3,500
Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
Joe Lieberman, Chairman (D-CT) 2,000 Carl Levin (D-MI) 0 Daniel Akaka (D-HI) 0 Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) 0 Robert G. Torricelli (D-NJ) 1,000 Max Cleland (D-GA) 0 Thomas Carper (D-DE) 0 Jean Carnahan (D-MO) 1,000
Fred Thompson, Ranking Member (R,TN) 0 Ted Stevens (R-AK) 3,000 Susan M. Collins (R-ME) 0 George V. Voinovich (R-OH) 0 Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) 12,000 Thad Cochran (R-MS) 3,000 Judd Gregg (R-NH) 1,000 Robert Bennett (R-UT) 8,053
Josh Marshall may have a point about these committees being fatally compromised. From these numbers, it looks like the closest thing to a clean committee is Oxley's House Financial Services, with only 25 of 69 in Enron's debt.
Joe Lieberman's Senate Governmental Affairs committe is next, with eight out of sixteen members with Enron money in their political pockets - a dead standoff.
On Dorgan's Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee on consumer affairs, eleven of thirteen have accepted Enron donations.
Bernie Tauzin's House Energy and Commerce Committee also looks like a wholly owned Enron subsidiary: of its 57 members, 37 have cashed Enron checks.
There's no shortage of committees on the Hill lining up to investigate Enron. And one of the key points of investigation is Enron's multifarious lobbying of the federal government. But aren't we missing a rather obvious difficulty? How many of the Senators and Congresspersons on these committees received campaign contributions from Enron? And do they have to recuse themselves? And will anyone be left to run the committees?
Here's what Marshall is talking about; some Enron political contributions for the 2000 election cycle:
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE 08/15/00 $5,000.00 contribution made
NEW DEMOCRAT NETWORK 06/07/99 $5,000.00 contribution made 03/15/00 $5,000.00 contribution made
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE - EXPENDITURES 03/24/99 $15,000.00 contribution made
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE-CONTRIBUTIONS 07/24/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE-CONTRIBUTIONS 05/17/00 $1,299.00 in-kind contribution made
DNC SERVICES CORPORATION/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE 08/15/00 $5,000.00 contribution made
NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 10/05/99 $700.00 contribution made
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE-CONTRIBUTIONS 07/24/00 $266.00 in-kind contribution made
FRIENDS OF BUD CRAMER HSE-DEM AL/05 02/16/00 $500.00 contribution made
CONDIT FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM CA/18 10/19/00 $500.00 contribution made
DOOLEY FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM CA/20 10/02/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 10/16/00 $2,000.00 contribution made
GEJDENSON REELECTION COMMITTEE HSE-DEM CT/02 10/16/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
STEVE NOVAK FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM MN/04 06/21/00 $500.00 contribution made
HALL FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE (RALPH HALL - ROCKWALL, TEXAS) HSE-DEM TX/04 06/07/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 07/24/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
MORAN FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM VA/08 03/23/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
BECERRA FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM CA/30 10/16/00 $500.00 contribution made
PETER DEUTSCH FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM FL/20 06/07/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
CITIZENS FOR RUSH HSE-DEM IL/01 02/16/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
MINGE FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM MN/02 11/02/00 $500.00 contribution made
LUTHER FOR CONGRESS VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE HSE-DEM MN/06 11/22/99 $253.00 in-kind contribution made
EARL POMEROY FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM ND/01 10/18/99 $500.00 contribution made
MENENDEZ FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM NJ/13 05/24/99 $500.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF SHERROD BROWN HSE-DEM OH/13 12/10/99 $500.00 contribution made
GENE GREEN CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN HSE-DEM TX/29 08/09/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 04/19/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 02/04/99 $500.00 contribution made
BOUCHER FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM VA/09 05/24/99 $1,500.00 contribution made 10/01/99 $500.00 contribution made 06/21/00 $500.00 contribution made 05/24/99 $332.00 in-kind contribution made
KAREN MCCARTHY FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM MO/05 03/23/00 $500.00 contribution made
COMMITTEE TO ELECT GARY L ACKERMAN, INC HSE-DEM NY/05 05/06/99 $500.00 contribution made 03/23/00 $500.00 contribution made
CONGRESSMAN BART GORDON COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TN/06 03/24/99 $500.00 contribution made
DOGGETT FOR U S CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TX/10 06/30/99 $500.00 contribution made 07/24/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
SHEILA JACKSON LEE FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM TX/18 09/07/99 $500.00 contribution made 03/24/99 $500.00 contribution made 08/10/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 05/08/00 $500.00 contribution made 10/27/00 $2,000.00 contribution made
KEN BENTSEN FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TX/25 10/16/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 02/16/00 $500.00 contribution made 02/04/99 $500.00 contribution made 09/23/99 $500.00 contribution made 09/27/00 $4,000.00 contribution made
JIM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM FL/11 03/23/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
CHRIS JOHN FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE INC HSE-DEM LA/07 04/26/99 $500.00 contribution made
JOHN D DINGELL FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM MI/16 03/23/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 05/17/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF JIM OBERSTAR HSE-DEM MN/08 10/16/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
DEMOCRATIC LEADER'S VICTORY FUND 2000 HSE-DEM MO/03 08/09/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
RANGEL FOR CONGRESS 2000 HSE-DEM NY/15 07/24/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
TED STRICKLAND FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OH/06 10/18/99 $500.00 contribution made
TOM SAWYER COMMITTEE HSE-DEM OH/14 08/09/99 $500.00 contribution made
BLUMENAUER FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OR/03 05/08/00 $200.00 contribution made 06/18/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
DEFAZIO FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OR/04 08/03/99 $500.00 contribution made
HOOLEY FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OR/05 08/09/99 $500.00 contribution made
SILVESTRE REYES CANDIDATE FOR U S CONGRESS HSE-DEM TX/16 07/20/99 $500.00 contribution made
MAX SANDLIN FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM TX/01 06/18/99 $500.00 contribution made 04/19/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 09/23/99 $500.00 contribution made
JIM TURNER FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TX/02 03/24/99 $500.00 contribution made 10/18/99 $500.00 contribution made
LAMPSON FOR CONGRESS 2000 HSE-DEM TX/09 02/24/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 03/08/99 $500.00 contribution made
MARTIN FROST CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TX/24 06/21/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 07/24/00 $2,500.00 contribution made 06/07/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 02/04/99 $1,000.00 in-kind contribution made
NORM DICKS FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM WA/06 09/27/00 $500.00 contribution made
ADAM SMITH FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM WA/09 02/03/00 $500.00 contribution made 10/02/00 $500.00 contribution made
LOT OF PEOPLE FOR DAVE OBEY HSE-DEM WI/07 09/15/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
BOB MATSUI FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM CA/05 12/10/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
ANNA ESHOO FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM CA/14 02/03/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF BARON HILL HSE-DEM IN/09 03/23/00 $500.00 contribution made
PALLONE FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM NJ/06 06/18/99 $2,000.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF WEINER HSE-DEM NY/09 06/21/00 $500.00 contribution made
DAVE WU FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM OR/01 12/29/99 $500.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF JOHN TANNER HSE-DEM TN/08 09/15/99 $500.00 contribution made - View Image
CHET EDWARDS FOR CONGRESS HSE-DEM TX/11 10/16/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 05/08/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 06/21/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 03/03/99 $500.00 contribution made
STENHOLM FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE HSE-DEM TX/17 05/06/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 06/30/99 $3,889.00 in-kind contribution made
CHARLES A GONZALEZ CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN HSE-DEM TX/20 12/10/99 $500.00 contribution made
FRIENDS FOR JIM MCDERMOTT HSE-DEM WA/07 02/08/99 -$500.00 contribution made 03/24/99 $500.00 contribution made
ZELL MILLER FOR SENATE INC SEN-DEM GA 08/10/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
BINGAMAN 2000 SEN-DEM NM 06/30/99 $1,247.00 in-kind contribution made 06/30/99 $2,500.00 contribution made 05/06/99 $1,000.00 contribution made 06/21/00 $3,000.00 contribution made 08/09/99 $127.00 in-kind contribution made 03/30/00 $2,000.00 contribution made
KENNEDY FOR SENATE 2000 SEN-DEM MA 05/06/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF KENT CONRAD SEN-DEM ND 05/17/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
NELSON 2000 SEN-DEM NE 12/14/00 $1,000.00 contribution made 08/08/00 $2,000.00 contribution made
TORRICELLI FOR U S SENATE INC SEN-DEM NJ 10/05/99 $1,000.00 contribution made
BILL NELSON FOR U S SENATE SEN-DEM FL 12/14/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
FRIENDS OF SCHUMER SEN-DEM NY 05/20/99 -$2,500.00 contribution made
ROBB FOR THE SENATE SEN-DEM VA 08/31/00 $1,000.00 contribution made
Oddly enough, Senator Tom Daschle isn't mentioned for the 2000 election cycle - probably because he wasn't running. Or maybe the $5000 Enron greased him with in 1998 was supposed to carry over.
It will be interesting to see how many Democrats on this list join the crowd howling for Bush's scalp over his "close ties" with the Enron Corporation due to the donations he accepted from the company.
UPDATE: Of currently serving senators, 70 of 100, including 29 Democrats, 40 Rebublicans, and 1 Independent (Jeffords) have received Enron largesse. In the House, 188 of 435, including 70 Democrats and 118 Republicans have taken Enron funds.
CORRECTION Yesterday, I posted a report and links to a story (Yours is a very bad hotel) I found at wickens.ca, which is edited by Mark Wickens. The outline of the tale I referred to, in which Joseph Crosby, the general manager of Houston's Doubletree Club hotel requested that a blog remove his name and the name of his hotel from the website because the blogger didn't have "permission" to post them, remains the same. However, the incident did not happen to Mark Wickens or wickens.ca: he merely reported on it and linked to it. The blogger who received the demands from Crosby was Cory Doctorow, who posted the emails at craphound.com. DailyPundit regrets the error.
The Kingdom has also dispatched five large containers carrying 10 kidney dialysis machines, plus a large electricity generator, plus other medical equipment to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Hmm.
Saudi Arabia donates ten dialysis machines, plus a generator to keep them humming. To a hospital in Gaza. Do we know anybody with kidney problems who might be looking for a congenial place to lie low for a while? A Saudi type person, perhaps? A rich Saudi?
Under the first lease, the United States agreed to pay Cuba 2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at $4,085. Washington continues to pay that amount every year. Castro’s government refuses to cash the checks.
In 1903, a $20 gold piece weighed a hair over one ounce, so a payment of a hundred such coins would have been sufficient. At today's rates, though, a hundred ounces of gold would be worth $28,700. No wonder the Cubans aren't cashing those checks.
While stating that the threat to the United States from a missile with a mass-destruction warhead is "higher" than it was two years ago, the National Intelligence Estimate says for the first time that "U.S. territory is more likely to be attacked" with weapons of mass destruction by countries or terrorist groups using "ships, trucks, airplanes or other means."
WaPo fires another salvo in its long march to convince that shopping bags full of anthrax eliminate any need to defend against warheads full of plutonium.
A state judge ruled Thursday that Ohio's law against carrying concealed weapons violates the Ohio Constitution by barring people from carrying firearms to protect themselves...Lawyers for Cincinnati, the county and state plan to immediately ask a state appeals court to stay Ruehlman's order forbidding enforcement of the law. The lawyers will argue to the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals that Ruehlman's order contradicts Ohio Supreme Court rulings in the 1920s that upheld Ohio's authority to prohibit carrying concealed weapons, said Richard Ganulin, an assistant city solicitor for Cincinnati.
What's interesting about those 1920s Ohio Supreme Court decisions in support of a concealed weapon ban is that they were designed solely to disarm ethnic minorities.
In 1920, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Mexican for carrying a concealed handgun -- while he was asleep in his own bed. Justice Wanamaker's scathing dissent criticized the precedents cited by the majority in defense of this absurdity: "I desire to give some special attention to some of the authorities cited, supreme court decisions from Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, and one or two inferior court decisions from New York, which are given in support of the doctrines upheld by this court. The southern states have very largely furnished the precedents. It is only necessary to observe that the race issue there has extremely intensified a decisive purpose to entirely disarm the negro, and this policy is evident upon reading the opinions."[State v. Nieto, 130 N.E. 663, 663, 665 (1920)]
It's no secret that racism played a large part in the establishment of many early gun control laws; it was open knowledge these laws were never intended to apply to white men. Now that they do, perhaps it's time to revisit the logic underlying the original decisions, and throw the whole mess out.
Democrat denies conflict of interest...but Weddington said it was "insulting for Cisneros to tell the people of Texas and the media that he honestly intends to conduct a nonpartisan voter registration campaign while he is enthusiastically supporting and endorsing Democrat candidates." "It is hard to believe that Henry Cisneros will spend half his time working for Texas Democrats and half his time registering Republicans to vote against them," she added. "The conflict of interest is as plain as day, and it raises serious legal and ethical questions regarding the potential misuse of a nonprofit organization."
Misuse? I suspect Cisneros will use it exactly as he intends to.
The latest Gallup poll shows the public is largely divided on this matter, with a slight plurality favoring increased government spending to additional tax cuts. Most Americans also believe Congress should proceed with the tax cuts it passed last year rather than delaying or repealing them, as some have suggested.
In other words, we don't know how to fix the recession, but keep your cotton picking hands off our tax cuts. Daschle's efforts to demonize tax cuts may be a non-starter after all.
EVERYTHING NOT PERMITTED IS FORBIDDEN: The tale of the disgruntled pair of travelers denied a room at Houston's Doubletree Club despite a guaranteed reservation has been floating around the Web for a while. The duo made an innovative complaint in the form of a 17-page PowerPoint presentation which they posted online, and which eventually picked up national attention.
The story was also noticed by at least one denizen of the blogosphere, wickens.ca, who posted a link to the presentation, as well as links to other items. On January 4, USAT reported a satisfactory resolution to the matter in a story linked by wickens.ca, who also removed the link to the PowerPoint presentation, at the request of the two creators. End of story, right?
Not quite. wickens.ca also received email from the general manager of the hotel, one Joseph Crosby. The first said,
Dear Webhost, Please provide written authorization, either electronic or hard copy, for use of the Powerpoint Presentation titled "Yours is a very bad Hotel".
The second was even more interesting - and instructive:
Thank you for removing the powerpoint presentation from your website. Now I must ask that you remove my name and the name of the hotel from your website as you do not have permission to use either. Thank you, Joseph Crosby
Needless to say the editor of wickens.ca, responded by linking to both emails for the edification of his readers. And, at least when I tried it a short time ago, the link to the PowerPoint presentation was working as well.
Aside from the obvious - that Mr. Crosby never heard the maxim that when you're in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging - I'm puzzled about the ignorance Crosby displays. Unless he is utterly clueless - and GMs of large urban hotels usually aren't that - he would never dream of making demands like these to the editors of, say, the Houston Chronicle. Now, a little disclosure: I worked for Marriott Corporation as both staff and management for more than ten years, in very large properties in Denver, Chicago, and San Francisco. GMs are by nature cautious when dealing with media, although it is integral to their job, a large part of which involves promoting and selling the hotel itself.
These missives betray an uncharacteristic lack of that kind of caution. They tell me that this GM doesn't consider a "web site" a legitimate form of media, despite a Supreme Court decision that indicates otherwise. There is no other way to interpret the justification, "you do not have permission to use either." No journalist needs "permission" from anybody to report or comment on the news.
The date on the email wickens.ca posted is January 8, 2002. Obviously the blog has not complied with Mr. Crosby's "requests." It will be interesting to see what sort of followup Mr. Crosby intends to pursue.
ANTI-IDIOT WATCH: A recent rant from Harry Browne, erstwhile candidate for President from the Libertarian Party, has been making the rounds lately. Called "What Has 'Victory' Achieved?," it is compelling evidence that the Salter/Sontag/Fisk disease is not limited to the left. Herewith excerpts with my comments:
HB: On September 11, foreign terrorists killed several thousand people by destroying the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon.
DP: In a clear act of war, as declared by the admitted leader of the organization that carried it out.
HB: Some people considered this a criminal act -- not an act of war by a foreign nation. They said the U.S. government should concentrate on finding, capturing, and bringing to trial anyone connected with the attacks.
DP: Nobody said it was an act of war by a foreign nation. Osama bin Laden believes he represents some sort of mythical "Nation of Islam," but that has no legal standing. However, al-Qaeda was aided and supported by the nation of Afghanistan, when the Taliban government allowed the terrorists shelter, succor, training facilities, protection, and cover.
HB: The people who wanted war said this approach was laughable. They demanded that the doves lay out a fool-proof plan that would guarantee the capture of Osama bin Laden and anyone else involved in the attacks. Of course, no one could do that.
DP: Of course. It was laughable. Was Mullah Omar going to arrest Osama for us? Which left as the only alternative:
HB: And so the warmongers carried the day -- and the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan.
DP: Bingo!
HB: What Has Happened?
DP: I don't know. You developed an itch?
HB: Now, four months later, what has been achieved? Many things . . .
DP: Cabbages and kings.
HB: 1. Afghanistan has been bombed and bombed and bombed, just as many people wanted.
DP: 91 % of the American public, for starters.
HB: The entire village of Kama Ado was wiped out, for example, killing 115 people who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks.
DP: A little proof here? Even a scrap?
HB: Reporters visited the remains and saw the fragments of U.S. Air Force bombs.
DP: Remains of buildings, or of the bodies of 115 people who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the Taliban? Yes, in villages bombed by American bombers you will generally find fragments of U.S. bombs. Your point?
HB: {1} Another bombing, at Qalaye Niazi, killed at least 50 civilians {2} -- apparently because a local anti-Taliban tribal leader, trying to intimidate local citizens, told the U.S. military that Al-Qaeda forces were there.
DP: Apparently? Apparent to whom? I suppose most local leaders do subscribe to the theory that intimidating the locals means turning them all into pink paste. That would get their attention, I guess.
HB: {3} (For some reason, these events hold little interest for the American news media.)
DP: Perhaps because there's little evidence they occurred the way you claim?
HB: 2. Throughout Afghanistan, thousands of people have died from the U.S. bombing -- even though American TV news channels have shown little interest in reporting these deaths.
DP: Perhaps because there's no evidence for that number except your febrile imagination?
HB: {4} No one has claimed that a single one of the dead people had anything to do with the September 11 attacks. Their guilt lies in not overthrowing the Taliban or in possibly being members of Al-Qaeda -- not in any knowledge that they participated in the attacks.
DP: Yes, we know the people who participated in the suicide attacks are all dead, Harry. Suicide will do that to you.
HB: 3. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes -- trying to get into Pakistan to escape the American bombing.
DP: And hundreds of thousands of Afghans have returned to their homes, now free of the anti-liberty Taliban rule.
HB: {5} Imagine how you'd feel if you had to leave your home and all your possessions to avoid being killed.
DP: Imagine how you'd feel if you risked losing all your possessions and being killed just for living in your home, by your own government? I thought Libertarians were supposed to be uncomfortable with that sort of thing.
HB: 4. Tens of thousands of Afghans are starving to death -- in many cases eating grass to stay alive as long as possible. {6} Afghanistan has always been a poor country; now it is a devastated one.
DP: As reported by NGO aid organizations. And as debunked by DailyPundit.
HB: 5. Because of the destruction, Afghanistan will have to be rebuilt -- at a cost of billions of dollars. And guess who's going to pay for it. That's right -- you and I.
DP: We didn't see that big "You Break It, You Bought It" sign at the door when we entered.
HB: 6. Tens of millions of people around the world have been added to those who believe the U.S. is a big bully that tyrannizes small countries. {7}
DP: And hundreds of millions have been added to those who understand that driving jetliners into American skyscrapers is not the safest thing in the world for them to support.
HB: Eggs & Wars
According to the brave warriors, all these tragedies are the necessary collateral damage that occurs in a war. After all, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
(Did you ever notice that the people who believe this rarely volunteer their own eggs? It's almost always someone else who must suffer the "collateral damage"?)
DP: "Brave warriors?" Nice fatuous sneer there, Harry. Anyway, as a nation, we sent our own children out to break those eggs. That's "someone else?" You jackhole.
HB: But where is the omelet?
DP: In your skull?
HB: Despite all the deaths and destruction, the devastation hasn't produced the capture of a single person claimed to be involved in the September 11 attacks. In fact, the only arrest so far of an actual suspect occurred in the United States, not in Afghanistan.
DP: Well, that's a tricky bit of work, Harry. What you neglected to mention is it produced the death of Mohammed Atef, al-Quaeda training chief in whose camps many of the actual hijackers were trained, and suspected by some of being the actual mastermind behind the attacks on the WTC. The other main suspect, Ayman al-Zawahri, number two in the al-Quaeda hierarchy, hasn't been heard from lately, and may also be dead.
HB: Was the Right Choice Made?
On September 12, America faced two choices: 1. Treat the attacks as a crime, recognizing the possibility that the perpetrators might never be captured.
DP: And recognizing, in that case, that more successful terrorist attacks against the U.S. were a certainty.
HB: 2. Treat the attacks as war -- and rain death and destruction on a backwards, third-world country that was powerless to fight back.
DP: And in so doing devastate the organization that attacked us, remove a huge source of support for it, save "millions" of Afghans from starvation, and remove one of the most vile, anti-freedom regimes in the world from power.
HB: Because choice #1 couldn't guarantee the capture of those responsible for the September 11 attacks, America went to war and decimated another nation. But that choice didn't produce the capture of a single perpetrator.
DP: No, we killed them instead of capturing them. Actually, I prefer it that way.
HB: And so we have nothing to show for all the death and devastation -- nothing except the increased hatred of millions more people around the globe. {8}
DP: See above. As well as the fact that no more large terror strikes have been mounted against us. As well as the increased love of millions of Afghans now free of a hideous, repressive government.
HB: Retaliation?
We're told the U.S. has simply acted in self-defense. After all, America was attacked. But what we've seen wasn't retaliation. If you hit me and I hit you back, I'm acting in self-defense. But if you hit me and I respond by hitting your sister, that isn't self-defense -- it's aggression against your sister.
DP: I wouldn't touch your sister with your ten foot pole. If you hit me, and your sister is aiming an AK-47 at me, and I take her out, that's self defense. It's also sanity, something you need to develop a better acquaintance with.
HB: The U.S. hasn't retaliated against the people who caused the September 11 attacks. It has attacked an innocent nation and achieved nothing for it.
DP: Men are from Mars, Browne is from the 17th Dimension of Xylgar the Braindead.
HB: Freedom for Afghans?
DP: I dunno. What do you think? Good idea, or bad idea? Take your time.
HB: TV news clips show happy Afghans shedding their beards and veils -- while providing little or no coverage of the refugee camps and villages where people are starving.
DP: Because they are emptying with astonishing rapidity as Afghans stream back to their homes, where even the UN admits they are being fed?
HB: Even if we could be sure that a majority of Afghans -- or even all of them -- approve of what the U.S. has done, the question remains: is it the responsibility of America to replace all the world's tyrants? If so, when does the bombing of Saudi Arabia begin? And is the U.S. going to invade China to supervise its "human rights" activity?
DP: Or "even all of them?" I guess we should settle for that, if we can't get a majority. And since when did smearing the Taliban from the historical record for being complicit in a devastating attack on our people become "replacing all the world's tyrants?
HB: And who could be so naive as to believe the Northern Alliance is going to rule Afghanistan in a more kindly way than the Taliban did? U.S. troops will no more guarantee a free country than do the U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. But once the war is over, our government and the press will no longer pay attention to the Afghans.
DP: Maybe those "happy Afghans shedding their beards and veils" you just mentioned. And the ones flying kites. You might try that, Harry: go fly a kite.
HB: Revenge?
Lastly, has the bombing of Afghanistan at least given people the feeling they've avenged the Americans who died on September 11? No. Revenge can be achieved only by hurting those who have hurt you -- not by killing innocent bystanders.
DP: Innocent bystanders like the leaders and footsoldiers of a fanatic movement openly dedicated to our murder and destruction, and the bloodstained government which succored and sheltered them.
HB: The U.S. war on Afghanistan has produced nothing but misery.
DP: And acres of bullshit from idiots like yourself.
HB: I don't know about you, but I feel no pride in knowing my government has slaughtered a lot of innocent people in my name.
DP: I don't know about you, but I feel like blowing lunch all over my keyboard, knowing that a moron like you has even a tenuous connection with the libertarianism I espouse, let alone that you ran as the Libertarian Party's presidential candiate in 2000.
If those of us who excoriate the imbecility of the Sontags and Salters of the world want to keep our credibility, we need to point out the equally elitist, fatheaded maunderings of those from our own part of the world. Consider it done: Harry Browne is a pernicious idiot, equally as loony as Robert Fisk or Noam Chomsky. If he's the purported leader of the Libertarian Party, they'll be holding their next nominating convention in a Des Moines telephone booth.
Obviously, my previous defense of Ambrose, based, I admit, much more on conjecture than fact, was as wrong as it could be. A clear pattern of uncredited appropriations - plagiarism - is emerging, which means that Ambrose is finished as a writer and historian.
I said, "And I think some attention does need to be placed on the practicalities of all this. Ambrose gets half-million hardcover print runs for his extremely popular histories, which indicates his advances are in the seven-figure neighborhood. A million dollars is a lot of money to risk in order to consciously plagiarize somebody else's work. These kinds of accusations can destroy an author's reputation...If this is the case, then, what are the options? That Ambrose has, as Janet Dailey claimed she did, lost his mind?"
To which I now add, "Or just wasn't very bright to begin with." It always amazes me that big name writers with huge readerships think they can get away with this sort of stuff. Then I read about people like Janet Daily and Stephen Ambrose who not only got away with it, they flourished for years before being caught.
I don't weep for Ambrose, even though I initially defended him. He's a liar, a thief, and a fool, and he sets a terrible example for young writers and students. What's coming for him isn't going to be pretty at all. But he deserves every bit of it in full measure.
Turkish ancient footprints apparently are being destroyed amongst the sands of Saudi Arabia.
The destruction of an Ottoman castle in Saudi Arabia to enable the construction of a hotel complex was described as a "cultural massacre" this week throughout media reports worldwide.
According to the British Independent, Saudi authorities allegedly demolished the al-Ajyad fortress to build accommodation and shops for pilgrims visiting the holy city of Mecca, an action Turkey has compared to the vandalism of Afghanistan's Taliban militia.
"The destruction of the al-Ajyad fort, part of the common cultural heritage of humanity, is an act equivalent to the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan," the Turkish Culture Ministry said Tuesday. It should be noted that the demolition was carried out by Saudi Arabia's Bin Laden construction group.
Turkey says it was reassured just last year from Saudi authorities that the castle would be preserved. However, now it has learnt that the fortress, built long ago, in 1780 on Bulbul mountain to protect the city and its Muslim shrines from invaders, has been destroyed. No official confirmation from Saudi authorities regarding the destruction has yet been reported.
Turkey’s Culture Minister, Istemihan Talay, has asked UNESCO, the UN agency responsible for the preservation of cultural relics, to protest to Saudi Arabia. "This is a crime against humanity and UNESCO should expose this disgraceful and ugly destruction and cultural massacre," the Minister claimed.
Ottoman Turks once ruled an empire ranging from the Arabian peninsula to the Balkans and North Africa. The Empire disintegrated at the onset of the 20th century, upon Turkey becoming a secular state. The Turks suspect that the Saudis saw the fort as an unwelcome reminder of Turkish rule. The destruction of the fort has severely angered and offended many in Turkey.
"Everything I know, I learned in Saudi Arabia" - Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Kuwaiti actor Daoud Hussein expressed his delight that his program Erhabiyyat aired by Abu Dhabi TV during last Ramadan, has miffed the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to the London-based daily Al Hayat.
...Among the screenshots aired, Hussein plays Sharon carrying a bottle full of blood from Arab children and expressing his delight with drinking this blood in front of another delighted character representing an extremist Jew. Another episode portrayed a cartoon for a donkey rubbing a magic lantern from which a giant emerges asking the donkey what he wants. The donkey responds that he wants to be transformed into a human being. The giant tells him I shall transform you into a human being called Sharon. The donkey shouted with regrets preferring to stay as a donkey rather than to become Sharon. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Radio and TV director, Ismael Abdulla said, “Peres seems to have lost the spirit of fun,” adding that “Israel should seriously review its policy and stop shooting and killing the Palestinians instead of blasting the media.”
The spirit of fun, huh? Yeah, I guess that's what we've lost. It's those bottles full of Arab kid's blood we all like to swig from. A real bummer, ya know?
So, Daoud, you Islamofascist Kuwaiti prick-tease for malignant bigotry, how does it feel to have lost your fucking mind?
STALE BUT STILL EDIBLE: I know I mentioned this before, but it's worth an item of its own. Not as funny as the chomskybot, but in its own way, mesmerizing: the inflation calculator.
A Vancouver neighborhood is in uproar upon hearing that four, high-risk sex offenders are going to be living among them. “It’s kind of like you’re handed a revolver with five chambers, and one of them has got a bullet in it with your kid’s name on it,” said John Ennis, a neighbor.
There are few controversies more touchy than the question of what to do with paroled sex offenders. High recidivism rates rightly cause worries among communities into which such offenders are released. The situation is often further complicated by "Megan's Law" clones that mandate announcing the presence of such offenders as publicly as possible. I certainly don't have any pat answers. But one possibility is to take another look at the criteria that go into constituting a sex offender. Quite often consensual sex between a fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen year old "child" and an adult is treated no differently that forced molestation of children ten or younger. It might be helpful to revisit these statutes with an eye to decriminalizing such consensual sexual encounters and standardizing an acceptable age of consent. In Canada, under most circumstances, both the heterosexual and homosexual ages of consent are 14. I doubt very much if that would be acceptable in the United States, but perhaps the general European standard of 16 would fly.
Once that was accomplished, we could take a look at the remainder, and make two rough divisions: forced molestation and simple molestation. The simple variety might continue with a punishment/release regimen similar to the one we have now, with drastically increased penalties for repeat offenses. But forced molestation could become a case of "one strike and you're out." The death penalty is somewhat improbable for these offenses, but a mandatory life without parole sentence might be appropriate.
Rationally, sexual offender laws should curb forced, non-consenting sexual activities of all kinds, and within that framework, some age limit should be decided upon that makes actual (not ideological or religious) sense for offering informed consent. Sexual encounters outside the proscribed limits should be completely free and without legal penalty.
This wouldn't entirely solve the problem with released sexual offenders, but it wouldn't make the situation worse, and it might make it better.
Before we have a festival of guilt, frustration and political theater called a "homeless summit," perhaps we should try a civic experiment. We need to see where our hard-earned money goes when we give it to panhandlers.
Speaking as a long-time citizen of Baghdad-by-the-Bay, the sight of a major local pundit writing anything on our city's homeless problem that doesn't read like a press handout from the homeless "advocate" industry is enough to boggle the mind.
Perhaps something more than opinions about patriotism have changed in this country since 9/11.
The Metropolitan Police Authority criticised the Home Office yesterday for allowing a report on the rise in thefts of mobile telephones to be turned into a race issue.
Peter Herbert, the authority's deputy chairman, criticised the inclusion of ethnicity statistics in the report, which claimed up to half a million children aged from 11 to 15 were victims of mobile phone theft last year. The report also said most of the thieves were black, including 71 per cent of youths accused of the crime in London, 54 per cent in Birmingham and 63 per cent in Bristol.
Mr Herbert said: "The Metropolitan Police Authority takes the view that it's wholly unhelpful to provide such figures because it stigmatises people." He said he accepted that race figures should be included in some official reports but only where there was a "positive agenda of diverting young people from crime" or if offences were racially motivated.
It seems that lately British crime prevention efforts have centered on denying reality in favor of politically correct fantasies set in a world that doesn't exist. Anyway, the article finally does get around to pointing out where the real problem lies:
...He said the Home Office should have concentrated on the failings of phone manufacturers. He said: "We are more interested in what manufacturers can do to make these phones completely unprofitable to anyone who steals them."
TWO CARD STUDS: InfoSpace runs a UPI file on the Mary Francis Berry controversy:
A House congressional committee issued an ultimatum Wednesday in its running battle with the strong-willed chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Fail to seat President Bush's nominee to the panel and you could be removed, the committee told Mary Frances Berry. Use government funds to hire a lawyer and you could face criminal penalties, the committee warned. "Your actions in this instance, which have impeded and continue to impede the proper functioning of the commission, may be sufficient to justify your removal from the commission for malfeasance in office," wrote Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution.
If Republicans follow through on this, it will be an open invitation for the Democrats to play the race card as vigorously as possible. Expect to see a Mary Berry victimology caravan criss-crossing the country, whipping the Democratic base into a frenzy over the "Taliban wing" of the conservative movement.
STATE STATISTICS: In Population Anxiety Tony Blankley reviews Patrick Buchanan's new book "The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization."
Because the average European woman's birth rate is 1.4 (not counting immigration, it takes 2.1 children per woman to maintain a population level) Europe's population — from Iceland to Russia — will drop from 728 million in 2000 to only 207 million in the year 2100 — a 70 percent drop. Of Europe's 47 countries, only Muslim Albania is maintaining its population level. In the next 50 years, Germany's population will drop from 82 million to 59 million. By 2100, Russia's population will drop from 147 million to only 80 million. Mr. Buchanan quotes Russian President Vladimir Putin saying recently, "If the present tendency continues, there will be a threat to the survival of the nation."
Currently ranked number four on amazon.com, I predict this book will be the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2002. Faced with inexplicable assaults from professed Islamic warriors, the West is already jittery. This book will do nothing to soothe the worries, but everybody will read it anyway. And Buchanan's political career, now considered the deadest of dead issues, may experience a miraculous rebirth.
MAY I HAVE ANOTHER, PLEASE? This article, Amnesty seeks younger members by reworking image, outlines the reasons for a new Amnesty International campaign aimed at signing up American twenty-somethings through a campaign studded with Hollywood trend-setters:
"Sept. 11 reinforced for every American that the violation of people's human rights have a profound and direct impact on our own lives, our security, our economic lives, our public health," said Amnesty International USA's executive director, William Schulz. "Who is in a better position to reach both mainstream Americans and different demographic segments of the population with the message that human rights matter, and that our very lives are at stake if we deny people's human rights around the world? Who is in a better position than the artistic community? Nobody."
In other words, Amnesty International intends to expand its membership by harping on the twin notions of "root cause," and "moral equivalency," the issues that earned Susan Sontag, Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, Bill Maher, and their ilk richly deserved scorn.
And there are Amnesty International's other positions:
"Amnesty International has concluded that the proceedings used to convict and sentence Mumia Abu-Jamal to death were in violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty."
Amnesty's new 153-page report slams the U.S. human rights record in a number of areas, including the continued resort to the death penalty, widespread police brutality, and violence and inhumane treatment of detainees in American prisons.
Amnesty's secretary general, Pierre Sane of Senegal, says the mis-treatment of detainees extends increasingly even to asylum-seekers, those drawn by what he termed the myth that the United States is a human rights paradise.
Layne's Axiom comes into play here: This is the Internet, and we can fact check your ass. Do the leaders of Amnesty International believe they can successfully repackage their history of America-bashing into a new wrapping that makes supposed U.S. "denial" of "human rights around the world" reason enough for the murderous attacks on the United States? And then use this remodeled facade to wheedle donations from the youth of the very nation it blasts?
An acute food shortage has forced thousands of malnourished Afghans to eat grass and thousands more may face starvation if they do not receive help, international aid agencies warned Tuesday.
Hmm, let's see:
Afghan Radio reported on August 6, 2001, that "Refugees displaced by drought and civil war in Afghanistan are forced to live a miserable life in Balkh Province and have been eating grass and locusts to survive their life. "
Afghan Radio also reported on April 20, 2001, that "Many people who fled from fighting in northeast Afghanistan have to eat grass to survive, residents and aid workers said Thursday. "
A December, 2000 letter to Pakistan link reported, "In the freezing temperatures of December 2000 the poor beings were actually eating grass to survive."
In March of 1998, Karen Johnson, a vice president of NOW, wrote: "Many [women] are eating grass, suffering from skin diseases due to the lack of sunlight and dying due to starvation and untreated illness."
You get the idea. And while I don't want to minimize the plight of any Afghans who may be suffering, I have to recall the NGO relief agency wolves crying about the brutal Afghans winters that have yet to make their appearance. On the face of the evidence, food shortages that result in Afghan diets consisting of grass aren't "acute": such things have been occurring for a long time, mostly under the Taliban.
If this sort of tragedy is indeed happening, we need to mitigate it, as I'm certain we are capable of doing. But I think we need to be aware of other agendas on the part of NGO aid organizations: competition with the U.S., reflexive anti-Americanism, fear of loss of influence, and fund-raising. After being almost entirely wrong with their warnings and predictions since 9/11, the NGOs's credibility is no longer high enough to accept everything they say at face value. In fact, even the NGOs themselves have in recent times been unable to agree on the extent of the problems in Afghanistan.
A member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) used racist language to insult the American ambassador to Israel, which brought this immediate reaction:
Knesset Ethics Committee Chair Colette Avital (Labor) vehemently denounced Hendel's remarks, and has called a session of the committee for today to discuss what she called "a racist statement that could only incite anti-Semitism. In the name of national pride, Hendel besmirched a person of stature and a Jewish supporter of Israel, and displayed the ugly face of the Knesset." She demanded that Hendel apologize.
MK Yossi Sarid, leader of the opposition and chairman of the Meretz party, said he agrees with Kurtzer completely about investments in the settlements, "and if because of it Hendel were to now call me a jewboy, I'd wear the insult proudly."
Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, a rabbi, said that Hendel had disgraced the honor of the Knesset and harmed the Jewish people.
Compare this near-universal denunciation of Hendel to the wave of Arab public revulsion for much worse anti-Semitism featured as daily grist in the Islamic media. You can't? Because there is no such wave?
BUSTED: Ancient traders suffered boom and bust says a Nature article that examines ancient economic history as revealed by several thousand clay shards containing trading records.
Ancient Babylonian trading markets were as volatile as our own, says an economic historian. Prices of agricultural goods in the city fluctuated hugely, and the death of Alexander the Great triggered two decades of economic instability
But in fact, the article refutes itself only a few paragraphs later, with this:
The ancient markets remained volatile for about 20 years, until Seleucus was firmly established in charge. [ed. note: approx. 280 BC] Prices then remained stable until around 141 BC, when the Parthians attacked from Persia, initiating a prolonged period of conflict and steadily rising prices. Babylon, once the biggest city in the world, declined over the next few centuries, eventually collapsing into abandonment and ruin.
In other words, prices remained stable for 140 years. If modern markets were as "volatile" as these ancient markets, we'd be paying the same for a loaf of bread today that we did in 1860. We should be so lucky.
In fact, prolonged inflation of the type the U.S. has experienced in the 20th century is a modern phenomenon. The last year of deflation we experienced was in 1949. Since then, we've had 53 consecutive years of inflation, an event not only unique in the history of our nation, but in the history of the western settlement of the new world. A thousand dollars worth of goods purchased in 1825 would have cost you only $758 in 1900, 75 years later, while a thousand dollars of purchases in 1925 would cost you $9752 in 2000.
If you'd like to see something really instructive, check the US inflation rates over the past two centuries at the inflation calculator. Compare what happens to a thousand dollars from 1800 to 1899, versus 1900 to 1999. It's quite an eye-opener.
Three former Taliban ministers who surrendered to local authorities in southern Afghanistan were released and allowed to go home to their families today
We're now running into a problem we should have anticipated. The Afghan tradition of turncoating and surrender means that implicit bargains have been struck among Afghan factions that have nothing to do with the goals of the United States.
The leaders mentioned above surrendered. Obviously, they would not have done so had they expected to be turned over to the U.S. for interrogtion, incarceration, and trial. And the "good" Afghans who accepted their surrender implicitly agreed to these spoken or unspoken terms - otherwise there would have been no surrender at all.
It should be noted that none of these Taliban or al-Quaeda leaders have "surrendered" to U.S. forces. Those we have custody of have either been turned over to us, or captured by us. We can expect more of the same, no matter how large the bribes we hand out become - which, by the way, involves another Afghan tradition: nobody stays bought for long.
It's a truth that seems to have escaped most commentators, but the notion that either Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden could swan about the countryside of Afghanistan (or Pakistan, for that matter) without the active connivance of forces supposedly on our side is ludicrous. For reasons I've already discussed, if we want these leaders, we're going to have to go get them ourselves.
WELCOME ABOARD: New additions to the perma-links section (on your left): Bjorn Staerk, MuslimPundit, Happy Fun Pundit, James Lileks, and Little Green Footballs. Good ones all.
Upon taking office last week, Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde affirmed the Argentine national treasury is empty. To the dismay of his political colleagues, he admitted: "We don't have a single peso to pay salaries, pensions or bonuses."
The contrast between President Bush's handling of the Argentine financial meltdown and President Clinton's reaction to the Mexican crisis is instructive: Clinton defied congress to cobble together a bailout package of loans for the stricken economy south of the border. Despite opposition warnings, Mexico survived its crisis and repaid the loans early - in large part because it benefitted so hugely from the economic boom in the U.S. that took off about that time. President Bush, however, has been content to let the Argentine economy proceed into collapse, which it is now doing with a vengeance.
So, does that make Bush a heartless bad guy? Not necessarily. One could make the argument that President Clinton, in setting a bailout precedent for Mexico, encouraged other countries to assume they could count on a similar rescue from the U.S. if they were to sail into economically troubled waters. President Bush, on the other hand, is sending a different message: nobody is "too big to fail," so don't look for the U.S. to bail you out if you cannot keep your own economic house in order.
It's the old difference between giving a man a fish, and teaching him how to fish for himself.
Afghan authorities said Tuesday that they have taken custody of five Taliban officials — including the defense and justice ministers of the ousted regime. Meanwhile, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that intelligence indicates that two senior al-Qaida leaders have been killed in the military campaign in Afghanistan.
Thanks to the expectations raised - bin Laden "dead or alive" - news like this will interest terror-war junkies, but only the capture or death of Mullah Omar or Osama bin Laden will mean anything to the public at large.
IT'S THE POLITICS, STUPID, REDUX: A WaPo editorial, Changing the Subject, discusses President Bush's newfound emphasis on domestic issues and advises:
There's nothing inherently wrong with that shift. Even if the recession has hit bottom, the domestic economic situation demands the president's careful attention -- as does the rapidly deteriorating fiscal health of the federal government in the wake of last year's tax cuts. But the shift in emphasis, seemingly driven by a presidential political team with its eye on the fall elections, comes at a sensitive, maybe even critical, moment in the war. The risk is that momentum so skillfully built by the administration since Sept. 11 may be lost when it is most needed.
If WaPo had endorsed any but Democratic presidential candidates since 1972 I might be more inclined to regard their editorial advice as being entirely unbiased. Evidently WaPo has forgotten that the main reason the current President's father was defeated for reelection was a public perception that Bush 41 was out of touch with the home folks and the domestic picture.
If Bush 43 follows this advice to keep his political eye focused solely on the ball of the war on terror, he will be repeating his father's mistakes - and he's too smart a man to do that. In any event, the whole WaPo argument is a thinly-veiled reprise of the "Bush is stupid" theme; in this case, he's too dumb to wage war and handle domestic issues at the same time.
Bush won't buy it, and neither should anybody else.
FIGHT THE BAD FIGHT? Back in mid-2001, Salon reported in The Greatest Vendetta on Earth a tale of the weird vendetta the owners of Ringling Brothers circus waged against a journalist who wrote a piece they considered unflattering:
Over lunch, Smith recounted a campaign of surveillance and dirty tricks Feld had unleashed on her in the wake of her 1990 magazine piece in the now-defunct Regardie's magazine. Feld, he said, had hired people to manipulate her whole life over the past eight years. Feld had spent a lot of money on it, he said. He may have even tried to destroy her marriage. In fact, Pottker would eventually learn of a massive dirty tricks operation, involving former CIA officials and operatives, that would target Ringling enemies such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups, not just Pottker.
Read the whole thing. PETA isn't my cup of tea at all, but Ringling Brothers doesn't look like a knight in shining armor either. Thanks to Justin Slotman for the link.
It isn't the article, it's the gratuitous snarkiness at the end. Speaking of a new combo tv/satellite/dvd/maybe wireless all-in-one doohickey soon to be announced, the author finishes with:
It's also changed its name: until today, Perlman's start-up was called 'Rearden Steel'. Which, we're reliably informed, was named after a character in the comedy novels of Ayn Rand, the whacky, crypto-fascist Russian émigré much beloved by spotty adolescent 14-year olds (and by spotty free-marketeers, when they fail to grow up).
This bit of even-handed analysis was written by one Ronald Orlowsky of (it figures) San Francisco, my home town. Turns out Orlowsky does a lot of writing for that haven of fluorescent idiocy, the New Statesman, where one can also find the work of Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, and John Pilger, though not the work of Ayn Rand, who created Hank Rearden, the owner of the company Rearden Steel.
We're reliably informed that the writing in the New Statesman features about the same level of accuracy as Orlowsky's own prose.
HAPPY SMILING (CONSUMER) FACES: Tony Adragna at QuasiPundit responds to DailyPundit's salvo about Sen. Daschle's speech:
Neither Tommy D' nor myself argues that the tax cut per se deepened the recession, but the lack of confidence in this administration's fiscal policy, especially as regards the return to deficit spending, definitely could have had some impact.
The word "confidence" is used exactly three times in Daschle's speech: the first, "Fiscal discipline lowered our long-term interest rates and increased business confidence..." is highly arguable; the second, "...the continued high interest rates and the adverse impact on investor confidence," is even more so; and the third, "Homeland security itself will provide economic stimulus because it will increase confidence and spur spending," is irrelevant (and also arguable). Increased money for Homeland Security is already in the pipe. Senator Daschle voted for the bill, in case he's forgotten.
As to Daschle's determined Bush-bashing over tax cuts and the economy, at least one study suggest that if he's successful in destroying confidence in Bush's ability to lead us out of the recession, and thereby drastically lowers Bush's popularity, he may well be creating the exact danger he claims he's trying to avoid:
Oh, my. Is there anything we optimists can hang our hats on without being accused of being a bunch of out-to-lunch Dr Panglosses? Here's a nugget. History suggests that how consumers feel about the president and how they feel about the economic outlook are closely allied, according to a study by Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research in Barrington, Illinois.
Bianco examined all the major crises in the last 40 years, including the assassination of JFK in November 1963, the Iran hostage crisis in November 1979, Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and Desert Shield/Desert Storm in August 1990/January 1991.
"The relationship between the president's approval rating and consumer confidence not only holds during these crises, but in most cases actually strengthens," Bianco says. "Often a crisis that gives the president's approval rating a jump -- rally around the flag -- does the same for consumer confidence." If you think about it, the president's approval rating and consumer confidence are really the same question to most people, Bianco says.
In other words, Daschle's mau-mauing of Bush, if successful, may actually make the downturn deeper by worsening consumer confidence and spending. Of course, from the political point of view of a Democratic party functionary fighting for control of congress ten months hence, that might not be a bad outcome at all.
MAXIMUM DEADLY LOAD: Pundits are missing the point in the story about Charles Bishop, the disturbed fifteen year old Osama wannabe who crashed his Cessna 172R into a 42 story Bank of America tower in Tampa, Florida. It doesn't matter why the young man flew his plane into the building; it only matters that he was able to do it in the first place.
Much has been made of the fact that the speed and fuel load of the plane were only a tiny percentage of the destructive power of the jetliners that crashed into the WTC. However, specifications for the Cessna Bishop flew list its standard useful load as 818 pounds. Minus the weight of the pilot and other items, this still leaves room for a large amount of Semtex. If Bishop had slammed into the BofA tower and simultaneously set off three or four hundred pounds of Semtex, the damage would have been far greater than a few broken windows and a scorched office or two.
One wonders if, unlike deluded fifteen year olds, others who might have access to such amounts of Semtex have taken note of this incident.
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