Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Brave, Brave Sir Harry Reid



Click here for AmazonHugh Hewitt has this delightful snippet on Harry Reid, who combines the wisdom of Barbara Boxer with the backbone of Teddy Kennedy:

Harry Reid, visionary: "But most of all, we need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there." Actually, most of all what we need is an end to the threat of Islamist terror against the United States and the rest of the world, a far-off goal that requires the resolve and patience that Rid and his party utterly lack. The run-away caucus remains fundamentally irresponsible in the face of the threat.


Hugh Hewitt: Brave, brave sir Harry Reid

Prager: The Worth of the Left



Click here for AmazonIt took a Polish rescuer of Jews in the Holocaust, cited this week 60 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration and death camp, to best describe those people who cannot or refuse to know the difference between good and evil. They are "worth nothing."

...Since the 1960s, with few exceptions, on the greatest questions of good and evil, the Left has either been neutral toward or actively supported evil. The Left could not identify communism as evil; has been neutral toward or actually supported the anti-democratic pro-terrorist Palestinians against the liberal democracy called Israel; and has found it impossible to support the war for democracy and against an Arab/Muslim enemy in Iraq as evil as any fascist the Left ever claimed to hate.

There were intellectually and morally honest arguments against going to war in Iraq. But once the war began, a moral person could not oppose it. No moral person could hope for, let alone act on behalf of, a victory for the Arab/Islamic fascists....

It brings me no pleasure to describe opponents of the Iraqi war as "worth nothing." I know otherwise fine, decent people who oppose the war. So I sincerely apologize for the insult.

...That most Democratic Party leaders, union leaders, gay leaders, feminists, professors, editorial writers and news reporters have called for an American withdrawal and labeled this most moral of wars "immoral" is a permanent stain on their reputations.

...Leftists do so for the same reason they admired Ho Chi Minh and Mao Tse-tung and condemned American arms as the greatest threat to world peace during and after the Cold War. The Left "does not know the difference between good and evil." And that is why it is worth nothing.


Dennis Prager: The Worth of the Left

Monday, January 31, 2005

The Prevaricator



Click here for AmazonI just noticed that Captain Ed recognized something important that had been floating about the comments section of several blogs since John Kerry's appearance on Meet the Press. No, not the hilarious hijinx involving the CIA man and the magic hat (although both were mentioned... seriously). Just consider the following snippet of transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?

SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia [emphasis mine]." We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.


Ed points out that the Khmer Rouger were Cambodian Communists that devastated the country after the US pulled out:

Why Kerry would think that we ran weapons to the Communists in Cambodia while battling them in Viet Nam is beyond me. It's apparent that he's making this story up as he goes along. Every time he's asked about Christmas in Cambodia, he changes the story. This time, he came up with a name that fits with the subject matter, but he's so clueless that he either didn't know or couldn't remember exactly what the Khmer Rouge were.

It's yet another marker of the dishonesty we've come to expect from the junior senator from Massachusetts. He won't sign the Form 180, either, even with his promise to do so in the same interview. His prevarication has become pathological.


You heard that right. At the end of the program, Kerry promised aaaagain to sign his Form 180 so that all of his records could be released. Don't hold your breath. We've got a better chance of seeing Dennis Rodman as a Supreme Court Justice.

CQ: The Prevaricator

This is al-Qa'eda Rule 18...



Click here for AmazonThose who work themselves into a tizzy about alleged torture at Gitmo need a bit of education. Specifically, they need to acquaint themselves with the Al Qaeda training manual's "Rule 18": claim you were tortured. A lap dance is many things, but I've never heard it called torture before. The Boys from Brazil must be chortling into their soup about now. They knew what torture was.

The men's claim that they were tortured at Guantanamo should also be set in the context of the al-Qa'eda training manual discovered during a raid in Manchester a couple of years ago. Lesson 18 of that manual, whose authenticity has not been questioned, emphatically states, under the heading "Prison and Detention Centres", that, when arrested, members of al-Qa'eda "must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security investigators. [They must] complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison". That is not, of course, proof that the Britons were not tortured in Guantanamo. But it ought to encourage some doubts about uncritically accepting that they were – which seems to be the attitude adopted by most of the media.


The Telegraph: This is al-Qa'eda Rule 18: 'You must claim you were tortured'

The New Cadillac DTS Presidential Limousine



Click here for AmazonThe invaluable AutoSpies site points us to the new Cadillac DTS Presidential Limousine, a 2006 model that was hand-crafted for the President. It debuted on Inauguration day. Note the thickness of the windows and doors. It looks more like a bank vault than a vehicle... and, in this day and age, it should.

With a new design and unique construction under the skin, the new Cadillac DTS limousine is handcrafted and dressed in a jet-black clearcoat finish. The vehicle is a considerably longer, wider and taller version of the production model that becomes available later this year. To maintain national security, the limousines are equipped with state-of-the-art protection and communication systems.

The vehicle interior boasts six-passenger seating with comfort and visibility for all occupants. A rear seat executive package features a concealed, foldaway desktop that can be deployed when conducting affairs of state. The rear seats have an adjustable reclining feature along with the adaptive seat system, which senses the position of the occupant in the seat and automatically adjusts the cushion for added comfort. Moreover, rear seat passengers can enjoy their own premium sound system complete with a 10-disc CD changer. Wood accents, rich blue leather and cloth complete the executive interior.

An embroidered presidential seal is positioned in the center of the rear seat back panel, as well as on each rear door trim panel. Presidential seals are also affixed to the exterior rear doors. The U.S. flag is placed on the right front fender, and the presidential standard is located on the left front fender when the president travels in the vehicle. Flush-mounted High Intensity Discharged (HID) spotlights illuminate the flags at night.


AutoSpies: The New Cadillac DTS Presidential Limousine

PoliPundit's Social Security Quote of the Day



Click here for AmazonHypocrisy, as defined by Jayson at PoliPundit:

Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013, payroll taxes will no longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments. And by 2032, the trust fund will be exhausted, and Social Security will be unable to pay out the full benefits older Americans have been promised.

The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; and not to drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it...

Specifically, I propose that we commit 60 percent of the budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small portion in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social Security sound for 55 years.


President Bill Clinton: Statement on Social Security (January 19, 1999)

Steyn



Click here for AmazonUhmmm, as New Sisyphus says, it's pretty much always appropriate to prefix "the great" when referring to Mark Steyn. Read -- and savor -- the whole thing.

The IMF noted in November that the Iraqi economy is already outperforming all its Arab neighbors.

You might not have gained that impression from watching CNN or reading the Los Angeles Times. The Western press are all holed up in the same part of Baghdad, and the insurgents very conveniently set off bombs visible from their hotel windows in perfect synchronization with the U.S. TV news cycle. But, if they could look beyond the plumes of smoke, they'd see that Iraq's going to be better than OK, that it will be the economic powerhouse of the region, and that the various small nods toward democracy going on in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere suggest that the Arab world has figured out what the foreign policy ''realists'' haven't: that the trend is in the Bush direction...


Mark Steyn: Iraq is going to be just fine

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Election Day



Click here for AmazonIt's 7:20 AM ET, with polling in Iraq scheduled for about another two hours. Estimates indicate that 72% of the electorate turned out to vote. Turnout was heavy even in the so-called "triangle of death", where Sunnis and Shiites reside. There are about 5,200 polling stations. Of these, about nine were attacked on Sunday with no catastrophic losses. In other words, about one-fifth of one percent.

By any measure, the vote is proceeding swimmingly. So, all that being said, let's see how the MSM is covering the vote:

ABC News:

Iraqis Defy Attacks to Cast Historic Votes
Iraqis danced and clapped with joy Sunday as they voted in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying insurgents who launched eight deadly suicide bombings and mortar strikes
• Iraq Election too Dangerous for Monitors

CBS News:

Bombs On Iraq's Election Day
Ninety minutes after voting began in Iraq, violence including bombs claimed at least 31 lives, as rebels made good on their threats to disrupt the nation's first free elections in 50 years. "Steady" voter turnout is reported in many areas.
• Interactive:Iraq Votes

CNN:

Bombers target Iraqi voters, polling stations
A string of attacks, some targeting lines of voters waiting to cast ballots in Iraq's first free elections in half a century, killed at least 16 people Sunday and injured scores more. Turnout was sporadic, yet in some parts of the country polling stations were packed with Iraqis waiting to vote, many of them for the first time in their lives
• Fear and defiance | Rocket Attack
• Iraqis brave bombs to vote

FoxNews:

A New Dawn of Democracy
Iraqis wait to enter polling station in Basra.
• Nine homicide bombings and mortar strikes kill at least 31
• Despite violence, eager Iraqis head to polls to vote in country's first free election in 50 years

MSNBC:

Voting amid violence
Turnout picks up for critical Iraq election, but insurgents launch deadly attacks.
• Newsweek: Why election won’t stop insurgency
• WP: No timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal

Hey, MSNBC: why not rig a truck to blow up, Dateline-style, in front of a polling station and then snap some photos of bloody ballots?

I suppose the age-old canard, "if it bleeds, it leads" will always apply to the MSM. But it would be nice if, a few days down the road, at least one of the bigs (besides Fox) had the intellectual honesty -- and courage -- to call a success a success.

The history books will eventually record whether a democratic Iraq succeeded or not. Whether a democratic Iraq dampened terror in the region. But let it never be said that President George W. Bush was not courageous and principled in sticking up for his beliefs that the Iraqi people needed to be freed and that despotism bred terror.

My belief is that history will look upon the President and this era kindly, Teddy Jo Kopechne and rest of the left bank, anti-American nay-sayers notwithstanding.

Update: Mohammed and Omar post the following inspiring, emotional entry on Iraq the Model...

I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?"… "Model for what?" Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.

Could any model match this one!? Could any bravery match the Iraqis'!? Let the remaining tyrants of the world learn the lesson from this day.

The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis s far but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun.

I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's tyrants.
I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn't hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said "brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn".

Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box!

Saturday, January 29, 2005

The Largest Man-Made Explosion Prior to Hiroshima



Click here for AmazonIt was December 6, 1917, a bright, crystal clear day in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a port city, Halifax was a bustling hive of activity. Troop ships, supply vessels and other vehicles were engaged in the commerce of World War I.

Near eight in the morning, the Belgian supply ship Imo   headed out of the harbor. At the same time, the French vessel Mont Blanc   nosed its way into the harbor, preparing to join up with a convoy to cross the Atlantic.

In the Mont Blanc's   hold, and even laid on its deck due to lack of space, were tons of ammunition and explosives: benzol, artillery ammo, gun cotton, pitric acid -- a building block of explosives -- and over 400,000 pounds of TNT.

A series of navigational and signalling errors resulted in the Imo   crossing directly in front of the Mont Blanc  . The former struck the latter, missing the TNT, but creating an immense gash in the stores of benzol on deck. The resulting sparks of the collision set the stage for catastrophe.

The crew of the Mont Blanc   understood instantly that they needed to evacuate. They abandoned ship using the lifeboats, and rowed full bore for Dartmouth while their ship burned. Their screamed warnings were either not heard or ignored.

The Mont Blanc   careened aimlessly past a pier and set it afire. The Halifax Fire Department answered the call and began connecting their equipment to the nearest hydrant when the flaming ship disappeared. A white flash -- the largest man-made explosion prior to the nuclear age -- turned the harbor into an inferno of biblical proportions.

More than 1,900 people were killed instantly and almost 10,000 were injured. 325 acres of land were destroyed and any remaining structures simply burned. The Mont Blanc   was pulverized: one if its cannons landed more than three miles away while a piece of its anchor, which weighed over 1,000 pounds, sailed two miles in the opposite direction. The shock wave was felt over 250 miles away and windows shattered as far as 50 miles from the explosion.

Unfortunately, about twenty minutes elapsed between the inital collision and the devastating explosion. This was enough time for many people, including school children, to rush to the harbor to view the spectacle of the burning vessel. The glass launched by the explosion caused eye injuries to about 1,000 people...

The Halifax explosion

Book Review: Flyboys


A stunning tale of barbarism, courage and loyalty



Click here for AmazonIn a followup to Flags of our Fathers, James Bradley describes his detective work in determining what happened to nine airmen shot down over the island of Chichi Jima during World War II. One was easy: he was George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States. The other eight were MIA. Starting with recently declassified records from a military trial of Japanese officers on Chichi Jima, his discoveries are both tragic and inspiring. In fact, these true stories of brutality, courage and honor are sometimes almost beyond belief.

Rather than paint a single "snapshot" of the air war over the island near the end of World War II, Bradley tries to look at the big picture. His history lesson is concise, yet insightful. The brutal treatment of native Americans and Mexicans during early American expansionism... Commodore Perry's warships and the opening of international relations with Japan... the Russo-Japanese war that set the stage for World War II... the corruption of the Samurai ideal and the egregious Japanese atrocities in China... all are covered in wide-ranging and learned prose.

Other reviewers have complained about overly harsh treatment of US involvement with native Americans, Commodore Perry's mission, and other alleged "political" agendas. Speaking as an avowed conservative, I found nothing obvious that skewed history either way. War is a brutal business and early Americans were frequently at war. We cannot pretend otherwise.

The book is crammed full of interesting, historic details: American arms accounted for only a third of Japanese troop fatalities during World War II - lack of Japanese supply planning and poor strategy accounted for the remainder. The religious zeal with which Japanese soldiers were inculcated with the "no surrender" philosophy resulted in a brutish and barbaric form of war: "At Kwajalein, the Japanse garrison lost 4,938, with only 79 taken prisoner, a fatality rate of 98.4 percent."

The result was a perceived need on the part of American military planners to devastate the Japanese homeland, knowing that surrender was untenable. To put this in perspective, D-Day required 175,000 invading troops. 7,000,000 American troops were in the Pacific by 1945 preparing for Operation Olympic, the first phase of the invasion.

A War Department report concluded that, "defeating Japan would cost [them] five to ten million deaths and the United States between 1.7 and 4 million casualties, including 400,000 to 600,000 fatalities." Postwar analysis of Japanese homeland defenses indicate that Allied planners actually underestimated these casualty rates. Put in these terms, the fire-bombings and atomic attacks seem almost humane in that the corrupt Japanse military government was forced to succumb before millions of more lives were snuffed out.

This is a stunning book that paints a picture of almost unbelievable courage, honor and loyalty. All the while, it teaches a history lesson that most never hear about in school. Five stars, without question.

Amazon: Flyboys

Thank you, Hollywood!



Click here for AmazonLet's all give a big hand to Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Whoopi, and all the other members of the Hollywood Marxist Moonbats (Hat tip: LGF)....

...a billboard blitz “thanking” Hollywood for the reelection of President Bush will be unveiled early next week.

The advertisements feature the faces of liberal Hollywood icons Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Martin Sheen, Chevy Chase, Barbara Streisand, and Sean Penn, and offer thanks to Hollywood their help getting President Bush reelected.

Two versions of the billboard were created, both “thanking” Hollywood — the first for “4 more years” and the second for “W. Still President.”


Thank you, Hollywood!

Friday, January 28, 2005

Teddy Jo: Cheering for the Terrorists



Click here for AmazonTaranto is at it again, laying waste to Teddy Jo Kennedy in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Kahn. Teddy Jo, possessed of a miniaturized intellect when compared to his brother Jack, shocked many observers with one of the most anti-American statements in recent memory. But that's no surprise for the Senior Bloviating Moonbat from Massachusetts, whose decades-long track record of failed policies will leave skid marks, but not any sort of legacy.

John F. Kennedy's... 1961 Inaugural Address:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more.


Kennedy's brother Ted... is best known for driving off a bridge and leaving a young woman to drown. His attitude toward America's role in the world is the opposite of his brother's; it's best summed up as an inversion of FDR: We have nothing to offer but fear itself. Here he is yesterday at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies:

The war in Iraq has become a war against the American occupation. . . . The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution. . . . The first step is to confront our own mistakes. . . . No matter how many times the Administration denies it, there is no question they misled the nation and led us into a quagmire in Iraq. . . . As in Vietnam, truth was the first casualty of this war. . . . As a result of our actions in Iraq, our respect and credibility around the world have reached all-time lows. . . . Never in our history has there been a more powerful, more painful example of the saying that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. . .


...A succcessful election in Iraq will be a triumph for the Bush doctrine and the strongest rebuke yet to those Democrats who learned from Vietnam that America is a force for ill in the world. Ted Kennedy is, as The Wall Street Journal puts it today, "cheerleading for America to fail" because his ideology leaves him unfit to cope with American success. If he has his way, democracy in Iraq will suffer the same fate as Mary Jo Kopechne.


James Taranto: Cheering for the Terrorists

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