Friday, January 28, 2005

Jon Stewart's Fun Drinking Game



Click here for AmazonJon Stewart, The Daily Show: “By the way, for a fun second-term drinking game, chug a beer every time you hear the phrase, ‘contentious, but futile protest vote by Democrats.’ By the time Jeb Bush is elected, you’ll be so wasted you won’t even notice the war in Syria.”


Hat tip: PoliPundit

Friends of Democracy: an Iraqi Election News Blog



Click here for AmazonIt's awe-inspiring to read the on-the-ground reports of election preparation from Iraq. The Friends of Democracy blog is providing the kind of johnny-on-the-spot coverage that the MSM can only dream of getting. Not that they would ever engage in promoting the idea of Iraqi democracy, of course.

Click here for AmazonFrom a well-attended electoral debate and polling place security, to a graffiti-like swath of campaign posters, FOD is covering it all.

Friends of Democracy: Ground-level election news from the people of Iraq

Countdown to Elections in Iraq



Click here for AmazonIn recent months, the prevailing meme promulgated by mainstream media is that of election illegitimacy in Iraq. Now that it is clear that huge numbers of Iraqis will brave the storm to cast their votes, the emerging MSM meme is danger, death and destruction.

In fact, Teddy Jo Kennedy and Musab Al-Zarqawi have, idealistically, joined hands against the rush to democracy. Following their lead, the MSM promises to highlight any election-related violence while studiously ignoring the vote itself.

Lorie Byrd points out that on Sunday, Meet the Press will spend an hour regaling its viewers with the failed campaign of John Kerry. This, on the same day that the Iraqi election takes place - a vote that may be the most historic in recent memory.

There are two sea-changes underway. First, the tide of democracy is washing over the Middle East. Second, the old-line media is doing their best to spin, ignore and disenfranchise the story. But, fortunately, the old-line media no longer controls the publishing apparatus. We do.

Daniel Henninger:

At last Friday's prayers in Diwaniyah, a preacher from the Al-Fadeela party said voting "is a national moral duty, and not doing it would waste the chance for coming generations to a better future." It is in America's national security interests to have preachers in Iraq saying this, rather than what the government holy men pray for in Iran. Absent these elections, the prayers in Diwaniyah likely would resemble those in Iran.


Walid Phares:

On the same day that Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind in Iraq, declared holy war on democracy, six principal Iraqi leaders appeared in their nation's first televised electoral debate, broadcast live throughout Iraq by Alhurra television. The contrast between naked jihadism and democracy was never clearer. As the candidates took the stage, Zarqawi's dark dispatch from the underworld, and all the hate and threats it carried, disappeared — if only for a moment — under the klieg lights...


OpinionJournal:

[Ted Kennedy stated,] "Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam... the war in Iraq has become a war on the American occupation." This, on the eve of an election in which millions of Iraqis will risk their lives to create a new self-governing country... He also called for a precipitous American pullout that coincides with the wishes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, among others who are assassinating Iraqi democrats...


Lorie at PoliPundit:

This Sunday (that is Sunday, January 30th) the entire hour of Meet the Press will consist of an interview with failed Presidential candidate John Kerry. January 30? Hmm. It just seems like there was something going on that day. Why does that date seem significant to me? Must not be anything too important going on that day or you would think that Meet The Press would not be spending an entire hour on the discussion of a failed Presidential bid.


W. Thomas Smith, Jr.:

[According to Capt. David Nevers,] more often than not, Iraqi civilians — men, women, and children — are reporting suspicious activities that are either filling holes in previously gathered intelligence or providing new information which is then acted upon by U.S. and Iraqi troops. A new phenomenon, he says, is the increasing number of Iraqis who are publicly defying the insurgents.

"There was a report January 21 on the Iraqi TV channel, Al-Sharqiya, which featured local Iraqis being asked about the upcoming elections," says Nevers. "Locals interviewed in northern Babil Province not only were shrugging off the insurgent-driven fear and intimidation, they threatened to kill any insurgents attempting to interfere with their ability to vote. Polls have shown consistently for months that upwards of 80 percent of Iraqis intend to vote."


Jayson at PoliPundit:

“If [the Japanese] do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” – President Harry S. Truman, August 1945.

On the other hand, there’s this:

“The U.S. military presence [in Iraq] has become part of the problem, not part of the solution.” – Senator “Whiskey” Ted Kennedy, January 2005.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

"Teddy Jo Kopechne: Time to Retreat from Iraq"



Click here for AmazonThe Reliapundit just slapped around the consistently idiotic Senior Bloviator from Massachusetts, Teddy Jo Kopechne. Teddy is sounding the bleat of surrender on his tinfoil trumpet, to which -- thankfully -- only a tiny fraction of the left listens to. If there's a lifetime achievement award for consistently being on the wrong side of history in all matters, foreign and domestic, Teddy Jo is a sure-fire honoree.

...Teddy Kennedy has now explitictly called for the immediate "withdrawal" of US troops from Iraq. What he means is he wants the USA to surrender and accept defeat.

This is hardly surpising: the lefty Democrats forced the premature withdrawal of our troops from Vietnam in 1973, and then suspended financing of the South Vietnamese government in 1975. What happened as a result? The North invaded, the South fell, 500,000 were sent to "re-education" camps, 1 MILLION "boat people" fled the Marxist tyranny - half a MILLION died fleeing, Cambodia fell to Marxists and 3 MILLION more died on the altar of Leftist utopianism there as a result...

A similarly bad result will certainly occur in Iraq - and the Middle East - if we abandon the Iraqis as they battle the neobaathists (who - like Ho Chi Minh are socialists), and the neojihadists - both of whom want to re-establish xenophobic tyrannies.

Perhaps Teddy has appeasement in his genes: his poppa... Joe Kennedy - advocated letting another socialist tyrant - Hitler - have all of Europe...

Perhaps Teddy thinks the Iraqis don't deserve democracy or aren't up to it? Or maybe he thinks our troops are more needed elsewhere, like to storm and shut-down power plants in the USA in order to save us from the menace of global warming!?

It matters not why Kennedy advocates surrender; it matters only that the majority of Americans see him for what he is: a man who has ALWAYS appeased tyrants opposed to US interests, and who has always opposed using force to spread and defend democracy and liberty - from Vietnam to Nicaragua, to Cuba, to Panama and Granada - yea: even in our relations with the old- REPEAT OLD (and defeated) - USSR - Kennedy has ALWAYS advocated giving-in to anti-American tyrants.

Either Kennedy thinks peace is too dear, or that liberty and democracy are worth nothing: no battle; no war. He is wrong. Many things are worth fighting for, and the fight against tyranny and for liberty in Iraq is one of them...


RETREAT!!! (Hat tip: PoliPundit)

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Taranto Vaporizes the Opposition



Click here for AmazonThe excellent James Taranto of Opinion Journal's Best of the Web lays down two blistering riffs in his most recent edition of the consistently invaluable "Best of the Web".

He first pummels Ted Turner senseless (whoops, I guess that's redundant!) over Turner's incessant use of Hitler analogies. He then unleashes the dogs of war on certain Democratic Senators possessed of antediluvian ideas and painfully low reserves of intellectual honesty. You know, the ones who voted against the eminently qualified Condi Rice for "lying". Mmm hmmm, that's right, the same "lying" engaged in by Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, and scores of governments and intelligence organizations throughout the world: that Saddam Hussein was working on WMD's and represented a threat to the U.S.

I guess it's safe to assume that, according to these shining wits (phrase to be read as a Spoonerism), the world would be better off with Hussein, the terrorist training center at Salman Pak, Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Islam, Hussein's ongoing nuclear research program under Obeidi, Uday's rape rooms, the mass graves, the anthrax, the tons of high explosives, all co-existing as the utterly corrupt UN sanctions machine ground to a halt. Yep... that makes sense... if you're Barbara Boxer or Ted Kennedy.

In any event, consider this the "Best of Best of the Web".

"Ted Turner called Fox a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's popular election to run Germany before World War II," reports Broadcasting & Cable magazine:

Fox wasn't laughing, however. "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network, and now his mind," said a Fox News spokesperson. "We wish him well."


Sounds to us as though Fox was laughing. In any case, one is inclined to dismiss this as mere Angry Left bombast--but it's worth noting that unlike Fox, CNN, the network Turner founded, has a record of collaboration with genocidal dictatorship. In April 2003, just after the liberation of Baghdad, CNN's Eason Jordan described the network's relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime:

I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails). . . .

I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.


...This is not to say CNN is, or was, pro-Saddam; the question of access versus truth poses genuine moral dilemmas. But given the degree to which his own network covered up the atrocities of a fascist dictator, Turner ought to be more restrained in throwing around the H-word.


Taranto on the Dems and Condi...

What was that all about? The Senate has confirmed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state by a vote of 85-13. But a small group of Democrats, led by Angry Left heartthrob Barbara Boxer, insisted on staging a mock kerfuffle first. Even though the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had already approved Rice 16-2, with only Boxer and John Kerry* dissenting, the Dems insisted on delaying her confirmation for a week and holding a nine-hour "debate," which took place yesterday.

"My vote against this nominee is my statement that this administration's lies must stop now," said Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota. This is the same Mark Dayton who fled the capital in October, citing terrorism fears, but returned as soon as George W. Bush was safely re-elected.

Ted Kennedy said that the liberation of Iraq was "a catastrophic failure, a continuing quagmire." Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

Another Rice foe, Robert Byrd, denounced "the Administration's unconstitutional doctrine of pre-emptive war, its bullying policies of unilateralism, and its callous rejection of our long-standing allies." Byrd also accused Rice of employing "overblown rhetoric." Mark Steyn has a nice riff on Byrd:

Byrd, the former Klu [sic] Klux Klan Kleagle, is taking a stand over states' rights, or his rights over State, or some such. Whatever the reason, the sight of an old Klansman blocking a little colored girl from Birmingham from getting into her office contributed to the general retro vibe that hangs around the Democratic Party these days...


OpinionJournal: Best of the Web

"Offbeat" technical interview questions



Click here for AmazonI've been looking for some "offbeat" interview questions for developers. In our case, we get developers with excellent technical credentials but we're unsure of their passion, commitment, and social skills. I came up with the following non-standard interview questions and am soliciting additional ones that help gauge commitment, culture fit, etc.

1) What is your favorite third-party library or set of classes to use; why?

2) What's the coolest or most elegant algorithm you've seen; why?

3) Do you have a favorite language for web programming, command-line scripting, desktop apps, etc. and, if so, describe why you like them for those purposes.

4) If you had two weeks to do research in any one area of computer science, which would it be?

5) Have you been in a disfunctional team environment and, if so, could you describe what happened?

If you have some suggestions, please use the comments feature, below. I'd love to hear them.

Frontline: Al Qaeda in the West



Click here for AmazonLast night, Frontline highlighted the threat of Jihadists in the West (hat tip: Brooke). The entire show will apparently be available online on Friday. The web site appears to be a valuable set of resources and includes this article on the technologies used to facilitate terror.

It was all laid out in a polished, 25-minute training video: how to make an explosive belt to blow yourself up and kill as many people as possible.

This particular video, first posted on a jihadist message board in December 2004, presented the necessary explosives, shrapnel and vest for a suicide bomber. It demonstrated how to assemble the materials and wear the belt. And then the video showed a test of the explosive belt, with a simulated detonation aboard a crowded bus.

As translated on a Web site that tracks Islamic terrorist organizations, the producers analyzed the bomb's impact on the mock victims:

We notice that the following 2 seats were not directly hit. This is due to the fact that, when the person who will be wearing this explosive vest goes on the bus, and wants to blow himself up, he must be facing the front with his back towards the back. There is a possibility that the 2 seats on his right and his left might not be hit with the shrapnel, however, the explosion will surely kill the passengers in those seats.


Such Web sites and training videos, which are often posted then quickly removed to avoid detection, have multiplied after Sept. 11. In doing so, they opened perhaps the widest front in the war on terror: cyberspace...


Technology and Terror

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The Democratic Ideal



Click here for AmazonImmediately after President Bush's inaugural speech, the intelligensia on both sides of the aisle mocked the concept of spreading democracy as a basis for national policy. Noonan, Helprin and Buckley, among others, chided the President for an "unworkable" vision.

Joshua Muravchik of Opinion Journal deftly slices their arguments to pieces like an Olympic fencer. How does he do it? The best way to crush poor theses. By marshalling facts.

In 1776, there was exactly one country in the world with an elected government: the United States of America. 230 years later, there are 117 - or more than 60% of the world's governments.

...This historic transformation in the norms of governance has not occurred at a steady pace. Rather, it has accelerated. Just over 30 years ago, the proportion of democracies was about half of what it is today...


Muravchik points to "waves"; periods of time in which democracy accelerates, then pauses and starts again. Further, this tidal effect strengthens itself. As more democracies arise, the remaining authoritarian governments find it more difficult to retain power.

Only one region of the world has, so far, been left behind: the Middle East and North Africa (Israel is the the sole democracy among 18 states).

...In the wake of 9/11, President Bush concluded that it was no accident that this region where democracy was uniquely absent was the epicenter of global terrorism, and it was here that he launched his campaign for freedom, of which last week's speech was a broader statement...


His handiwork is crystal clear, except to the moonbats. Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority, and -- within days -- Iraq will all have held elections.

Further, Bush's evangelism has heartened freedom-lovers and propelled the cause of liberty in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman, where municipal or national elections have been or are slated to be held. And the wafting fragrance of freedom hasn't stopped at the ballot box either.

...Egypt's first independent daily newspaper was launched last year. In May, a new network, Democracy Television, owned and run by Arab liberals, will begin broadcasting to the region by satellite from London. Almost every month a new statement demanding democratic reform is issued by Arab intellectuals...


The "realists" warn that democracy is no panacea for terrorism. But the record shows that democractic governments seldom sow either conflict or terror.

Read the whole thing. And watch the "realists" squirm.

Joshua Muravchik: The Democratic Ideal

The Left Marches On



Click here for AmazonItem 1: Even though British intelligence, US intelligence, Israeli intelligence, Russian intelligence, President Clinton, Madeline Albright and a host of others during the 90's insisted Saddam Hussein was actively seeking WMD's, it was Condi Rice who lied, dammit!.

One Senate Democrat called Condoleezza Rice a liar Tuesday and others said she was an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq, but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state.

Rice, who has been President Bush’s White House national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said. She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Sen. Mark Dayton (news, bio, voting record), D-Minn...


Item 2: In response to a BBC article, the whacked-out far Left moonbats insist that Iran should be permitted to build out their nuclear weapons capabilities. Read the following excerpts and then recall Iran thought leader Rafsanjani's insistence that Muslims should nuke Israel into oblivion ("Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim world") even if it meant that 10% of the Palestinian population would also die in the atomic blasts.

Given a choice I would trust Iran more than the neo cons sitting in Washington. Iran has never in the past given any indication that it had any aggressive intent towards any of its neighbouring countries. And it has reasons to be worried about its security with neighbours like Israel and Iraq where more than a 100,000 US troops are based.
R. Venugopal, Delhi, India

The Iranians would be crazy to abandon their nuclear programme. In the end the world would be a safer place and there would be greater justice, if powers are balanced in the Middle East. I personally hope they get their nukes.
Jose R. Pardinas, Miami, USA

Iran has every right to defend itself. The USA has already hinted that it has plans to invade so what option does Iran have other than to develop the weapons necessary for its defence against an unprovoked attack by superpower?
Peter, Welwyn, England


Brainpost reports that a review of Milwaukee's presidential balloting has found more than 1,200 votes with non-existent addresses, suspiciously consistent with the certain-to-be-abused "same day voter registration". In fact, of the 1,242 voters with bogus addresses, 75% registered on election day. The total number of suspicous votes in Wisconsin is now around 20,000. Kerry's margin of victory? 13,646.

He posits that there are some highly suspect coincidences between these activities and the tour group "Illinois for Kerry" that bussed in voters from other states into Wisconsin. Bottom line: it is entirely conceivable that John Kerry actually lost Wisconsin but that rampant vote fraud stole the state for him. Read the whole thing. As the banner reads on his site:

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything" - Communist Tyrant and Mass Murderer, Joseph Stalin


Hat tip on all three items: LGF.

Fourth Estate or Fifth Column



Click here for AmazonThomas Sowell takes another big swing at the obscenely bloated pinata    that is the mainstream media. The grotesquely skewed coverage we're treated to by the likes of CBS, CNN, ABC and the NYT has all the historical accuracy of the Harry Potter series. The cracks keep widening and the pinata    is perilously close to breaking apart. Rest assured the bloggers will get to all the goodies first.

There are still people in the mainstream media who profess bewilderment that they are accused of being biased. But you need to look no further than reporting on the war in Iraq to see the bias staring you in the face, day after day, on the front page of the New York Times and in much of the rest of the media.

If a battle ends with Americans killing a hundred guerrillas and terrorists, while sustaining ten fatalities, that is an American victory. But not in the mainstream media. The headline is more likely to read: "Ten More Americans Killed in Iraq Today."

This kind of journalism can turn victory into defeat in print or on TV. Kept up long enough, it can even end up with real defeat, when support for the war collapses at home and abroad.

One of the biggest American victories during the Second World War was called "the great Marianas turkey shoot" because American fighter pilots shot down more than 340 Japanese planes over the Marianas islands while losing just 30 American planes. But what if our current reporting practices had been used back then?

The story, as printed and broadcast, could have been: "Today eighteen American pilots were killed and five more severely wounded, as the Japanese blasted more than two dozen American planes out of the sky." A steady diet of that kind of one-sided reporting and our whole war effort against Japan might have collapsed...


Thomas Sowell: Fourth estate or fifth column

Duly Noted



Click here for AmazonItems briefly noted:

Straight out of Iraq, we can now view campaign commercials and read the transcripts.

At the University of Oregon, a trademark case of the left's tendency to suppress free speech.

Clarity & Resolve congratulates the AP on recognizing Wahhabism.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Why Bloggers are more Accountable than traditional "Journalists"



Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt appeared on Fox & Friends and CNN to flog Blog. Hugh described a predominant line of questioning this way:

...one question seemed to me to be on everyone's minds: "Bloggers aren't journalists and so they are not accountable, right?" I'll check a transcript if one is posted when I get back to California, but I think that is pretty much how the question was posed, as opposed to the more neutral: "Are bloggers journalists?"

On both sets I tried to explain blogosphere accountability, and I may have been a touch short with Ms. O'Brien when I pointed out I have been a journalist for 15 years, in television, radio, print, and now text, and that of all the platforms, the blogosphere was the most accountable...


I didn't get to see the interviews and as an author of a (maybe) third-tier blog, do not get invited onto anything except for the Billy Cunningham radio show. And that occurs about as often as a meteorite touches down in Times Square. But I would answer that general question this way:

The same software technologies that spawned the blogosphere makes it -- at least -- an order of magnitude more accountable than traditional media outlets. Consider:

• The Comments feature on most blogs is the equivalent of, say, me interrupting Wolf Blitzer during a broadcast and peppering him with counter-arguments, pointing out his flawed logic, and otherwise providing instant, public criticism. Suffice it to say that traditional media has no such real-time, highly visible feedback loop.

• The Trackback feature is a sign of a story's strength. Consider the original Powerline Memogate posts that disgraced Dan Rather and helped bring about the current upheaval at CBS News: these are among the most tracked-back stories ever, a sign that other voices in the blogosphere not only believe the story but back its assertions and underlying facts.

• The Statistics feature is also a sign of strength. A site-meter, for instance, is a common tool on many blogs and helps a visitor gauge market-share... on a daily basis. I'm still waiting for most major news outlets to release real-time Nielsen-esque ratings for their various online op-ed columns, not to mention their traditional broadcasts and print subscription numbers.

There are a host of others self-correcting features related to validating the blogosphere: Technorati, referrer logs, and similar features help interested readers instantly ascertain story strength and logical consistency.

The first old-line media outlets to offer analagous capabilities will be at a significant competitive advantage.

Harvard's Insecure Pharmacare Web Application



Click here for AmazonLast Friday, the Harvard Crimson did yeoman's work in its exposé of an insecure web application that would reveal the pharmaceutical purchases of anyone with prescription coverage under Harvard's plan. The insurer's web site required only a Harvard ID number and a birthday to list the person's drug history.

What makes this especially grievous is that any organization dealing with sensitive, medical information knows that it must work within the constraints of HIPAA. Even the most rudimentary vulnerability assessment (VA) would have noted the lack of adequate authentication on the part of the web app designer.

...A list of all three prescription drugs purchased by one student at University Health Services (UHS) Pharmacy was accessed by The Crimson by typing his ID number and birthday into another website, run by Harvard drug insurer PharmaCare. Birthdates of undergraduates are published to fellow students, and are in many cases more widely available on sites such as anybirthday.com...


One security person quoted in the article blamed the problems on the proliferation of university ID numbers.

After the iCommons Poll Tool was shut down last night, University Technology Security Officer Scott Bradner said that “there’s no condition under which [the ID number] should have been shared…It was not a design feature.”


But that, of course, misses the point. The ID number can certainly be used, but only as a single component of an authentication step used to provide access to this sort of application. It's not rocket science: a pre-established PIN, password or use of a pre-established email address (e.g., "@harvard.edu") to confirm identity -- or other means of reasonable authentication -- is required.

Of course, the primary motivation for businesses to clean up their information security act is simple: the bottom line.

...Jerome B. Tichner Jr., an attorney practicing healthcare law at Boston-based Brown and Rudnick, said... “If an entity [covered by HIPAA] does not have adequate security systems, and it’s very easy for any third party to walk in or log in and obtain pharmaceutical information or other…healthcare information, that may pose liability concerns,” he said...


Until information security is considered an integral part of the application development lifecycle, expect more public -- and costly -- gaffes along these lines.

Harvard Crimson: Drug Records, Confidential Data Vulnerable

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Iraq, Democracy and U.S. Options



Click here for AmazonFar from the quagmire that leftists and terrorists worldwide enjoy dubbing it, Victor Davis Hansen posits that Iraq is already poised to be a major, strategic success. America's powerful, unexpected response to Islamic terrorism has given it new options in the Middle East and, indeed, worldwide.

...The American persistence in Iraq under difficult circumstances might also explain why potential enemies farther afield, from Teheran to Pyongyang, have so far decided not to seize the moment to press their luck with the United States. Meanwhile, the world at large appears more, rather than less, disposed to stand up to Islamic fascism and the terror it wages. Even less ambiguously, Pakistan, though often playing a duplicitous role in the past, has remained a neutral in the war on terror if not at times an ally, while its nuclear guru, A.P. Khan, is for the moment in retirement. On the issue of the dangers posed by Islamic extremism, nearly 3 billion people in India, China, Japan, and the former Soviet Union are more likely to favor than to oppose American counterterrorism efforts. Libya is suddenly coming clean about its own nefarious schemes and even opening its borders to African aid workers. Murmurs of democratic change are rumbling throughout the autocratic Gulf. Terrorists are not so welcome as they once were in Jordan, Yemen, or much of North Africa...

...If Americans have learned anything from the careers of Qaddafi, the Saudi royal family, Saddam Hussein, and the Iranian clergy, it is that huge petroleum profits accruing among illegitimate autocrats are a recipe for global terrorism and regional havoc. One way to end the present pathology is for the United States, accepting that concerns for our national survival can sometimes trump the logic of finding the cheapest energy source, to develop a policy that helps drive down world petroleum prices. Another option is far more aggressively to promote democratic reforms among the petrol sheikdoms themselves. A third is to do both. Given the entry of India and China into the world petroleum market, fostering tighter global demand while potentially circumscribing our own clout, the hour is more urgent than ever; but the Middle East is also, and once again thanks to the ongoing reform of Iraq and Afghanistan, more fluid and perhaps more promising than ever....


Aligned with these intentions, President Bush's inaugural address painted the stark rationale for our continued actions: that spreading Democracy is directly linked to our national security. In no uncertain terms, a failure to address despots and tyrants is a recipe for increased terror, conflict and risk.

Interesting, Musab al Zarqawi -- reknowned international terrorist -- agrees:

...We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology. Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it...


As Hindrocket notes, "Battle lines have been drawn. It's too bad so many liberals can't figure out which side of the line they're on."

Hindrocket also links to the blog of a US soldier serving in Iraq. Kerry Manthey recently posted this missive:

I read in the news today that Zarqawi is “declaring war on Iraqis who vote in the upcoming elections”. Here’s my prediction: The Iraqis are going to declare war on Zarqawi by voting in the upcoming elections. Zarqawi is also going to be captured by American forces. Zarqawi will beg the Americans not to turn him over to the Iraqis.

Zarqawi and Al Qaeda’s declaration of war on the Iraqi people is similar to Al Qaeda's declaration of war on America. If you didn’t think we were already at war in Iraq with Al Qaeda, you obviously missed what Al Qaeda did to us on September 11, 2001.

America didn't cower in fear from terrorism, neither will the Iraqis.


It is stunning to me how frequently today's left finds itself on the side of suicidal extremist terror and Middle East anarchy. One thing is certain: it is a recipe for continued failure at the polls.

Hugh Hewitt back in the LA Times



Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt is back in the LA Times, at the behest of editors who are, to their credit, offering its critics brickbats and hoping for honest, pointed guidance. Hewitt sensibly partitions the problematic Times coverage into a single, highest-priority concern: covering the GWOT as a war against a bright, motivated, and determined enemy, rather than as disparate, unrelated actions by disorganized groups of nutjobs.

In short, the Times has been as guilty as (or more guilty than) other MSM outlets in failing to paint a comprehensive picture of the threat: the linkages between the Madrid bombings and 9/11, the web of far-flung and clever AQ-affiliated organizations, the lifecycle of violence borne in the madrassas and terminating with catastrophic suicide attacks...

The rest of the MSM needs to follow the example of the Times. Clear the decks and balance coverage with respected, eloquent critics from the right side of the aisle. Britt Hume's show is the template for this sort of forum, but there is no reason that other MSM outlets can't capture the spirit of his show.

Read the whole thing, but here are some highlights of his recommendations:

• Do more to identify and inform the readers on the organization, leadership and capabilities of the Islamist terrorist network, paying more attention to experts who support the war in Iraq and believe... that the battles there will ultimately slow the spread of terrorism elsewhere.

• Start a daily — a daily — feature on the Global War on Terrorism and call it that. Explain the money trail and detail the leadership and do so with the repetition that assures that readers are not overwhelmed with one giant aircraft carrier of a piece. Give them the digestible segments that make for understanding. Where does the support come from and who manages the accounts? Are there names behind the cash that funds the madrasas that churn out the jihadists? What has been done to stop the funding? ...

In short, The Times needs to reorganize to actually cover the war as a war. The last global war was not covered as though the Pacific Theater was independent of the battles in North Africa, or the Russian front disconnected from the D-day invasion. As with that global struggle, so with this one. As it is, unfortunately, readers know less of the terrorist enemy than 1942 readers knew of the geography of North Africa...


Hugh Hewitt in the LA Times: Cover the Terror War as a War

Iran's Political and Military Leadership Call for Martyrdom



Click here for AmazonThe amplified rhetoric of the Mullahs regarding suicide attacks (read: martyrdom operations) continues unabated. MEMRI -- Middle Eastern Media Research Institute -- provides us with the following translations. Note that Khamenei and Shabani have so far suppressed any instincts to martyr themselves, instead exhorting Iranian cannon fodder young people to sacrifice themselves while their senior leaders enjoy all the perquisites of royalty.

In a recent statement to the 8th Congress on Martyred Students, Iran's Leader Ali Khamenei praised the culture of shahada (committing martyrdom operations), and called upon students to follow the path of martyrs.

Speaking at a memorial service at the University of Qom, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards general, Shabani, called for the training and education of students as martyrs. In his address, which dealt with means of resisting the enemy, Shabani also said that Iran is the third largest power in the region in ballistic missile production.


Khamenei urged students to continue to promote the culture of Jihad and martyrdom among themselves as "a source of national strength and a characteristic of pure worship… When we encounter the name of a student who committed martyrdom we are confident that the acceptance of martyrdom and of the Jihad that led to this martyrdom stemmed from [the martyr's] self-awareness and clear desire, and this intensifies the value of the act..."

"General Shabani said: 'Iran is the third [largest] power in the region in the field of ballistic missile production, following China and Russia.' [He also] praised the exalted status of the Islamic revolution's martyrs, saying: 'As the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] said, 'The martyrs are the quintessence of our strength.' Therefore, we must educate and train forces ready to commit martyrdom attacks in order to counter the enemy.

"'In the event of a war with the U.S. we must fight them asymmetrically. As of now, we have manufactured weapons systems and we have attained nuclear capabilities...'


MEMRI: Iran's Political and Military Leadership Call for Martyrdom (Shahada)

Exit Strategy



Click here for AmazonFrom RBShirley at SwiftVets: "The Barbara Boxer Rebellion questioned the exit strategy from Iraq and Afganistan, here is one pundit's tongue-in-cheek description of a potential exit from both."

Friday, January 21, 2005

The Associated (Palestinian) Press



Click here for AmazonIf you're looking for cold, hard proof that the MSM is -- and has been -- aiding and abetting the enemy, look no further than this reportage from the Jerusalem Post:

AFP and AP employ reporters who also receive paychecks from the Palestinian Authority:

Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) ― have employed journalists with inappropriately close ties to the Palestinian Authority. Majida al-Batsh was a Palestinian affairs correspondent for AFP for many years, while simultaneously being on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority as a reporter for the PA's official organ, Al-Ayyam.

If this is not evidence enough of impropriety at AFP, last year Batsh announced she would actually run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority...


Click here for AmazonThis is the sort of outrageous conflict-of-interest that results in the worldwide distribution of photos like that depicting the tragedy leading this paragraph. What the MSM doesn't bother to tell you is that the death of Mohammed al-Dura was, in all likelihood, a direct result of sniper fire by Palestinians.

Click here for AmazonThe same is the case with the Tuvia Grossman incident. The accompanying photo, broadcast and distributed in print throughout the world, depicts an Israeli soldier brutalizing an innocent Palestinian. At least that's what the MSM, including the New York Times, said. The facts behind the picture? The man beaten within an inch of his life is Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish American, who was pulled out of his vehicle by a Palestinian mob and viciously assaulted.

So the next time you see an article by the Associated Press, factor in the Palestinian Authority compensation factor, and read accordingly.

You know...



Click here for Amazoni've just got to note that the first major news magazine to make a serious attempt at balanced coverage is going to make a flat-out financial killing. An example of the kind of coverage I'm thinking of is here, straight out of Time Magazine online: Donkeys in Denial.

Fisking Thomas Friedman



Click here for AmazonBring the video-camera and gather the whole family together as New Sisyphus fisks the New York Times' Thomas Friedman in brutal fashion, using everything but brass knuckles and two-by-fours.

Tommy, you need to put any ice on that?

And, to reiterate an earlier post, the New Sisyphus blog, written by a member of the State Department, is not to be missed.