This post is simply to honor those who died today in Iraq. Although not yet in uniform, theese were simply people who wanted to defend their country against the terrorists who realize that the Iraqi people themselves now hold the key to the future.

It's a shame that other countries refuse to support the Iraqis, the majority of whom freely voted for a democratic form of government. I used to be willing to believe that tragedies like this were our fault for not having enough troops to defend the Iraqis - we broke it, we bought it. Well, the Iraqis are now trying to fix it for themselves and they are getting no additional help. I hope when their economy is up and fully running again that they screw those that couldn't bother to help man a barricade or even build a school.

At least 115 killed in Iraq suicide attack

HILLA, Iraq - A suicide car bomber blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits Monday as they gathered for physicals outside a medical clinic south of Baghdad, killing at least 115 people and wounding 132 — the single deadliest attack in the two-year insurgency.

Torn limbs and other body parts littered the street outside the clinic in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite area about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Monday’s blast outside the clinic was so powerful it nearly vaporized the suicide bomber’s car, leaving only its engine partially intact. The injured were piled into pickup trucks and ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals.

The deadliest previous single attack occurred Aug. 29, 2003, when a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in Najaf, killing more than 85 people, including Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. Although officials never gave a final death toll, there were suspicions it may have been higher.

On March 2, 2004, at least 181 people were killed and 573 were wounded in multiple bombings at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, although those were from a combination of suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives.



The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson

Afgahnistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, LEBANON....

Lebanon's pro-Syrian PM resigns

Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister has announced his resignation and that of his government.

Following Monday's statement by Prime Minister Omar Karami in a special speech to parliament, a Lebanese opposition figure called for popular protests in Beirut to continue until Syria quits Lebanon.

"The battle is long, and this is the first step, this is the battle for freedom, sovereignty and independence," opposition MP Ghattas Khouri told a cheering protest in central Beirut, according to Reuters.

Although I myself cannot act as a witness to Nazi crimes, I can at least create one tiny place in the ether where part of the story can be remembered.

The Lost Soldiers of Stalag IX-B

Shapiro sees the G.I.'s, 350 of them, selected by the Germans for extermination because they were Jews, or looked like Jews, or were deemed ''troublemakers'' or were just grabbed at random because the Nazis needed slave labor late in a lost war, and European Jews were already dead by the millions and those not yet slaughtered were too weak to work; he sees the Americans, in a place they could not comprehend, an ephemeral little hell for which they had no preparation or instruction, a Nazi concentration camp at Berga, in the east of Germany, too small to appear on most World War II maps; sees the bedraggled men, privates in their late teens or early 20's, fighting over crumbs, chewing pieces of wood or charcoal to try to stanch diarrhea, eating snow, coughing blood from throats lacerated by rock shards in the mines where they labored, slipping away in the night without a word. People who die of hunger and thirst die in silence. Either you strangle that memory or it strangles you. The shame of survival is sometimes too much to bear.

The entire story will be published in a book coming out in April, written by Roger Cohen.

Soldiers and Slaves : American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble

Will someone please explain to me again how this cease-fire thing is supposed to work?

A resumption of Israel's targeted killings of wanted militants, which Israel recently agreed to halt, would likely mean the end of the cease-fire declared by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a Feb. 8 summit in Egypt.

How is the "cease-fire" not already broken by yesterday's suicide bombing? Even if the definition of breaking a cease fire is responsing to an attack by the party of the first part, how does lay blame on the party of the second part who is only looking to punish the perpetrator of the origianl attack instead of wantonly killing innocents?

How was the cease-fire not declared broken when rockets were still raining down on Jewish villages in Gaza. or when an Israeli soldier was stabbed?

If the Associated Press is the arbiter of when cease-fires are broken, they are doing a piss-poor job.

At least we don't have to listen to any more of this type of crap. Flashback to 2004 - Arafat hints Israel planted Tel Aviv bomb

Wow.

Humvee Tragedy Forges Brotherhood of Soldiers - Iraqis Persevere to Recover Dead Americans

The actions of the Iraqis that Sunday "changed my mind for how I felt about these guys," he [Pfc. Russell Nahvi] said. "I have a totally different perspective now. They were just so into it. They were crying for us. They were saying we were their brothers, too."
.....
Asked why he now felt so strongly about helping the Americans, Abdul Mutalib said through an interpreter: "These people come 10,000 miles to help my country. They've left their families, their children. When we get hurt, they help treat us and take us to hospitals. If we can give them something back, just a little, we can show our thanks."
.....
The Iraqis gathered atop the canal, smoking and shivering in the gathering darkness. The Americans helped cover the Iraqis with blankets and embraced them. A U.S. military truck pulled up with food for the rescuers. The Iraqis hadn't eaten all day. The U.S. soldiers lined up at the truck, heaping their plates with food. Instead of feeding themselves, they fanned out, distributing the plates to the Iraqis.

At a dinner with friends last night, I told them that I had hope that Abbas would actively seek to arrest those involved in last night's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. I am hopeful that what has happened is real and not just a round-up of "the usual suspects".

Seven held after Tel Aviv bombing

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Israeli and Palestinian security forces have arrested seven people after a 22-year-old university student detonated a suicide bomb outside a nightclub in a popular beachfront area of Tel Aviv, killing four and injuring at least 65.

The Bush Revolution continues!

Egypt's Mubarak Calls for Democratic Election Reforms

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since taking power in 1981.

The surprise announcement, a response to critics' calls for political reform, comes shortly after historic elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, balloting that brought a taste of democracy to the region. It also comes amid a sharp dispute with the United States over Egypt's arrest of one of the strongest proponents of multi-candidate elections.

``The election of a president will be through direct, secret balloting, giving the chance for political parties to run for the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate for the people to choose among them with their own will,'' Mubarak said in an address broadcast live on Egyptian television.

A few weeks ago, I linked to a terrible case of abuse in the War on Terror as brought to light by Bob Herbert of The New York Times. At the time the story was that U.S. officials had taken a Canadian citizen on a stopover at JFK airport and summarily deported him to Syria for torture based on a totally innocent link to someone who may have been involved with al-Qaeda.

In today's column - Thrown to the Wolves - the story changes slightly. It seems that the U.S. took action becuase "the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...set this entire fiasco in motion by forwarding bad information to American authorities".

The issue of extraordinary rendition apart, I think it was a terrible mistake by Mr. Herbert to have suggested earlier that the U.S. was arresting and sending to their possible deaths citizens of other countries becuase of an overzealous airport immigration officer. That sends a terrible message to the tens of millions of tourists who come here annually from other coutnries. I should have known that the story was a little more complicated than initially presented.

It seems that Maher Hara never should have gone through such a horrible experience, but I will reserve judgement on extraordinary rendition until someone presents me with a fuller picture of the process. One can always find one case gone wrong in any governmental process, from the execution of innocent people to the neglect of battered children due to improperly staffed child welfare programs. I'm wondering if Mr. Herbert can find any more cases, or is he just harping on the one case he did find? (This is his third column on the subject of Mr. Hara. Number two is here.)

The New York Times has created a new class of people whom we are to feel sorry - hockey goalies - young ones more specifically.

Young Goalies Face the Puck

For many young people, sports become a focus of their lives. But hockey goalies face extra stress because they are, of course, targets.

Talk about "I feel your pain" run amok! I expect to see a series on soccer goalkeepers, baseball palyers who've been hit by a pitch and basketball players who have been "stuffed".

Oh, cruel world!

And take Hizbollah with you....

Syrian troops 'will quit Lebanon'

Syria says it will co-operate with the UN over implementing a resolution calling for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon, a senior minister has said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed al-Mualem said future withdrawals would be carried out in line with the deal which ended the Lebanese civil war.

On a similar note:

Lebanon government ready to quit

Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karameh has said he is prepared to resign once a new cabinet is agreed.

Mr Karameh said he would be happy to step down provided steps were taken to avoid a "constitutional vacuum".

The comments follow protests in Beirut calling for the resignation of the Syrian-backed government over the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Go ahead liberals and keep on pretending that all of this would have happened without George Bush as president.

With this post, I will forever be banned from running for Presdient of the United States. Then again, I never really had a shot.

Rally, really, really NSFW audio. Video is just the South Park kids.

The dirtiest joke ever told.

Here's some background.

Numa Numa Numa YAY!

Just when you thought you've seen it all - here's an entire classroom dancing along with Gary!

The real O-Zone video.

The fake Lego video!

Here's the lyrics in Rumanian and English side by side.

It was difficult not to cringe during Reagan's speech in 1987. He didn't leave a single Berlin cliché out of his script. At the end of it, most experts agreed that his demand for the removal of the Wall was inopportune, utopian and crazy.

Yet three years later, East Germany had disappeared from the map. Gorbachev had a lot to do with it, but it was the East Germans who played the larger role. When analysts are confronted by real people, amazing things can happen. And maybe history can repeat itself. Maybe the people of Syria, Iran or Jordan will get the idea in their heads to free themselves from their oppressive regimes just as the East Germans did. When the voter turnout in Iraq recently exceeded that of many Western nations, the chorus of critique from Iraq alarmists was, at least for a couple of days, quieted. Just as quiet as the chorus of Germany experts on the night of Nov. 9, 1989 when the Wall fell.

Just a thought for Old Europe to chew on: Bush might be right, just like Reagan was then.

Which neo-con publication printed this? None other than Der Spiegel, Germany's largest newsweekly (I think).

Now here's a broken promise I can get behind.

Howard breaks pledge; decides to increase troops in Iraq

Prime Minister John Howard refused to apologize Wednesday for breaking an election pledge by doubling Australia's troop commitment to Iraq, arguing it was justified by the need to maintain an important regional alliance with Japan.

Howard acknowledged he broke his two-year policy not to substantially increase Australian troop numbers in Iraq when he announced Tuesday that 450 additional soldiers will be sent to southern Iraq to protect Japanese military engineers who are repairing roads and schools there.

The Bush Revolution continues.



Protestors carrying Lebanese flags marched through much of Beirut on Monday, demanding that Syrian troops leave the country.

You know, it's always been kind of hard for me to describe why I maintain this blog. It doesn't get more than a couple dozen hits daily, hasn't made the national press and does indeed take some time away from my family. There is though, that certain high I get when someone posts a comment or sends me an e-mail based on something I've written.

I now realize that it's a sexual type of high that these reponses give me. Well, it's kind of like....well I'll let Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, describe it for me.

“A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” he said, noting that it can sometimes fall as low as being a “one man circle jerk.”

That's why the man's a big time journalist - I never would have thought of it quite that way.

Apparently, there is at least one Democrat other than Hillary ("vast right-wing conspiracy") Clinton and Cynthia ("Bush and others knew about 9/11") McKinney who could use a refresher course on Occam's Razor.

In its simplest form, Ockham's Razor states that one should not make more assumptions than needed. When multiple explanations are available for a phenomenon, the simplest version is preferred. A charred tree on the ground could be caused by a landing alien ship or a lightning strike. According to Ockham's Razor, the lightning strike is the preferred explanation as it requires the fewest assumptions.

You have to go right to Little Green Footballs to see the transcript and recording of Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) blaming Karl Rove for Dan Rather's downfall. Even after telling the crowd that this was only a "belief" of his, he asserted that "I think it’s very important to make charges like that...", to which the response from the audience was sustained applause.

Remember Billy Crystal's old Saturday Night Live character who used to say, "It's much better to look good than to feel good"? Well, some of the Left have a philosophy that it's much better to feel superior than to be honest and truthful. I think that's what got their last President into trouble.

Even though it doesn't seem like anything truly newsworthy will come from their release, I think the NY Times showed incredibly poor judgement in writing a story on secretly made tapes of President Bush's private conversations, delivered by an acquaintance (I wouldn't take the Times' word that this was an "old friend", no matter how many nicknames he had).

The Times makes sure we know about the "friend" that "He said he made the tapes in states where it was legal to do so with only one party's knowledge." Taping the recordings may have been legal, but making any portion of them public with the explicit purpose of giving them international exposure seems incredibly unethical to me. I think it's actually worse that they were only given partially to the newspaper, which then of course edits the transciprts to mention only what they feel is important.

Shame on the New York Times.

UPDATE: Like I said.

“The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to Bush.

Hillary Clinton is defintiely moving over to The Dark Side. I would vote for her in '08 if I didn't think that she was saying what people want to hear as opposed to what she really believed in her heart.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - As 55 people died in Iraq on Saturday, the holiest day on the Shiite Muslim religious calendar, Sen. Hillary Clinton said that much of Iraq was "functioning quite well" and that the rash of suicide attacks was a sign that the insurgency was failing.

Clinton, a New York Democrat, said insurgents intent on destabilizing the country had failed to disrupt Iraq's landmark Jan. 30 elections.

"The concerted effort to disrupt the elections was an abject failure. Not one polling place was shut down or overrun," Clinton told reporters inside the U.S.-protected Green Zone, a sprawling complex of sandbagged buildings surrounded by blast walls and tanks. The zone is home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy.

The five-member U.S. Congressional delegation arrived in Baghdad as a series of suicide bombings and explosions killed 55 people, including an American solder. Much of the violence was aimed at Shiite Muslims, commemorating Ashoura, the festival marking the death of the founder of their sect 14 centuries ago.
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"The fact that you have these suicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure," Clinton said.

Now here's an intifada I can support!

Lebanese opposition calls for uprising

Nearly a third of parliamentary ministers on Friday afternoon called on the pro-Damascus regime in Beirut to step down and make way for a interim government to oversee a withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanese territory.

More here - Lebanese protesters call for anti-Syria 'uprising'

Thousands of people took to the streets Friday in various parts of Lebanon as opposition leaders called for people around the world to support a peaceful "uprising" against Syrian armed forces in Lebanon and the pro-Syrian government.

Demonstrators -- marching three days after former prime minister Rafik Hariri and 16 others were killed in an explosion -- chanted "Syria out" and carried candles.

Peaceful opposition protests for democracy and freedom are rare in the Middle East.

To riff off the old SNL church lady skit - Hmm, who could have caused this change in the political atmosphere.....SATAN?!?!? The Democrats will never admit it.

This is just horrific. Seriously. I thought this story was a joke when I first read it, but apparently it's true.

Bugs Bunny gets an extreme makeover

Bugs Bunny and his pals are being updated for the future — way in the future.

The WB network will take the famed Looney Tunes characters as models for a new children’s series, “Loonatics,” that will air on Saturday mornings starting this fall. The characters’ descendants — Buzz Bunny and the like — will be superhero action figures for the cartoon set in the year 2772.

The network’s animators have re-imagined Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote as sleek new figures for a modern age.

Speaking of apologies...

BBC apologizes for airing erroneous story on IDF soldier

"Dozens of complaints have been received about a story on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day during the Today program that suggested a Muslim corporal in the Israel Defense Forces had been jailed for refusing to shoot Palestinian children, according to The Telegraph...Dr. Bell said he did not intend to cause offense and acknowledged that aspects of his story were incorrect, the British daily reported."

The results of a Google search I did for "BBC apologizes" is quite entertaining.

The question now is who will feel it necessary to apologize to Larry Summers for making him an icon of male chauvinism? I guess, like Eason Jordan, he dug his own hole by waiting so long to produce the transcript of what he actually said.

Harvard Chief Argued Over Gender Issues

A transcript released Thursday of Harvard President Lawrence Summers' remarks on women in science shows him arguing that intrinsic differences between the sexes, along with family pressure and employer demands, probably play a bigger role than cultural factors and discrimination in explaining why fewer women than men have top science jobs.

Repeatedly emphasizing he was ``guessing,'' attempting to provoke and hoped to be proved wrong by subsequent research, Summers attempted in his Jan. 14 remarks to articulate a general view of how various factors interact to explain why fewer women reach the highest-level science posts....

The transcript appears to support Summers' contention that he did not say women are less capable in science, only that statistics show men have a broader range of science and math test scores -- more fall in both the low and high ends -- just as they do in other categories including weight and propensity toward criminal behavior.

This sounds like a good thing. It is a shame that it took so long to figure out that only 1% of demolitions "deterred potential attackers or pushed their families to turn them in."

Israel to Stop Demolishing Homes of Suicide Bombers and Gunmen

It was also probably our own tax dollars that went towards rebuilding people's homes.

The following is interesting, but there was no historical context, or detail as to whether this policy was used against Arabs, Jews, or both. - "The policy of house demolitions is a holdover from the British rule of Palestine..."

Let's Go Mets!

Optimism abounds as camp opens

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The Willie Randolph Era officially got under way Wednesday morning at the Tradition Field complex as pitchers and catchers began checking in either with the team or its new skipper.

While the sense of optimism surrounding the Mets is high, that feeling is there not only because of a different manager, but also because of all the new faces in the clubhouse. There's three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez and budding megastar Carlos Beltran, both of whom are expected to garner the lion's share of attention this year from the media and fans, heading the club's transition into a new era.



I did forget the other day to mention the other "move" in baseball whereby the Anaheim Angels are now the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim".

I swear this is true...in Maureen Dowd's piece today, she mentions several gay sex websites that are likned to James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon, who the lefty bloggers outed recently. Earlier this morning when I read the piece, these sites were hotlinked - in other words if you clicked on the sitename you would go straight to an adult porn site. It seems like the Times fixed it, becuase the links aren't there anymore.

I also want to give the award to most obscure cultural reference to Ms. Dowd for the title of her op-ed - "Bush's Barberini Faun".

She is referring to a statue of a studly male figure in repose which can be seen here.

Hey, at least I learned something.

So, almost three weeks after the Iraqi elections, have things gotten more dangerous, or less? Has the insurgency continued unabated? In the words of John Kerry, should we not "over-hype" the positive effect that the elections may have had on the stability of the situation there? That's definitely the line the press is feeding us. These headlines were each written on different days since the election.

Rumsfeld Visits Iraq, Violence Simmers
Iraq Violence grows
New Wave of Iraq Violence
Iraq Violence Increases After Lull
Iraq Violence overshadows vote results

First of all, I love how the press uses the term "violence" as if there aren't actual human beings behind the violence. "Violence" is treated like the weather - it comes and goes without much anyone can do about it. It's as if a neo-Nazi burns down a synagogue and the headline were to read, "Fire destroys house of worship". Well, we can't put "Fire" in jail and lock him up and throw away the key! What can we do?!?

Anyhow, I know there's still the occasional car bomb against Iraq civilians and police, but the effect on the coalition casualty rate has been profoundly positive. For the first half of February, the average daily casualty rate is 1.76 which is comparable to the lowest rates since the capture of Saddam Hussein. (In Janauary leading up to the elections, the rate was 2 1/2 times that). In fact, this rate significantly overstates the casualties resulting from hositle fire, which represent fully half of that number. In other words, since the election, only about one soldier is dying per day as a result of hostile action.

Try and find an article in the news that talks about the great reduction in attacks against colaition forces. I dare you.

The Israeli Knesset has voted in favor of making the Gaza Strip Judenrein.

Knesset passes historic Gaza disengagement bill

In a turning point in the history of the nation, the Knesset approved the Disengagement Implementation Law by a wide majority on Wednesday, empowering the government to pay NIS 3.8 billion to 9,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and begin evacuating them in five months.

The law was approved in a 59-40 vote with five abstentions. The opponents included 17 Likud MKs.

I'm in the middle of reading Michael Medved's book "Right Turns" which is all about his transformation from a protest-leading liberal of the counterculture '60s to the defender of conservative values that he is today. Even though I am not nearly the extrovert Mr. Medved is, I really feel a strange sort of emotional kinship with him, both spiritually and politically.

A very thoughtful review in the NY Times can be found here - 'Right Turns': Culture Warrior

"The question, in its many variations a staple of Manhattan dinner parties, is invariably posed with bitter bewilderment: ''How could anyone with a shred of decency call himself a conservative?'' Alas, it is a question the book business has done a singularly poor job of answering. While publishers have fattened their bottom lines offering up red meat to true believers, the steady stream of invective from both left (''Liars!'') and right (''Traitors!'') has served only to widen the nation's yawning ideological divide.

This is what makes Michael Medved's provocative memoir, ''Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life,'' so welcome. There is certainly no question about where Medved stands: he is a leading cultural conservative with a nationally syndicated radio show; his book is blurbed by a who's who of right-wing conspirators (Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, Bill Bennett and, yes, Ann Coulter). But its pages are mercifully free of pettiness and bile. To the contrary, what we get is precisely what many who find his ideas objectionable profess to seek: an explanation of how a complex and decent man -- a proudly Jewish, former liberal activist yet! -- came to embrace them."

Here in Dallas it was 80 degrees, record heat for mid-February. Everyone was outside this evening enjoying the warm weather when a young man's heart turns to.....baseball!

No more Montreal, helloooooooooo Washington!



The Washington Nationals took another step closer to hearing "Play ball" uttered when pitchers and catchers started reporting to Spring Training at Space Coast Stadium on Tuesday.

While some pitchers, such as Jon Rauch and Gary Majewski, have been working out on their own at the club's complex, Tuesday marked the next official step in a journey that, since the end of the 2004 season, has taken the franchise from its Montreal home of 36 years to its new home in the nation's capital.

I wonder if elementary schools in more liberal areas are doing anything similar. My local public school started a pen-pal program between fifth-graders and a local Marine serving in Iraq. He recently came home and visited the school to much excitment and applause.

The Pen Pal from Iraq

Since October, the students were writing to Adam Gonzalez, a 22-year-old Marine sergeant stationed in Iraq, and listened as their teacher read his e-mailed replies to the class. They talked about what it meant to be a soldier. They sent him two care packages full of magazines, toothpaste and other toiletries, along with a Barksdale T-shirt so that, some days, he could dress just like them.

And for 45 minutes that Monday, the students wanted to show Adam what their letters and packages couldn't quite tell: their appreciation for him as he fought for freedom and as he wrote to their class.

My brother-in-law, Zarq, posted about the following WaPo article:

Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision

"When the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq two years ago, it envisioned a quick handover to handpicked allies in a secular government that would be the antithesis of Iran's theocracy -- potentially even a foil to Tehran's regional ambitions.

But, in one of the greatest ironies of the U.S. intervention, Iraqis instead went to the polls and elected a government with a strong religious base -- and very close ties to the Islamic republic next door. It is the last thing the administration expected from its costly Iraq policy -- $300 billion and counting, U.S. and regional analysts say."

The article is a complete re-writing of history. First, to claim that the Bush administration envisioned some quick exit after installing a puppet governemt is the exact opposite of what the President had said would happen. (Never mind the fact that the very idea hints at a "plan" which I thought the Bushies didn't have.)

"The United States has no intention of determining the precise form of Iraq's new government. That choice belongs to the Iraqi people. Yet we will ensure that one brutal dictator is not replaced by another. All Iraqis must have a voice in the new government, and all citizens must have their rights protected.

Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own. We will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more. America has made and kept this kind of commitment before -- in the peace that followed World War II. After defeating enemies, we did not leave behind occupying armies; we left constitutions and parliaments." - President Bush's weekly Radio Address, March 1 2003 (2 weeks before invasion)

The President made numerous statements to this effect in the run-up to the war which can be found on the official White House website. In other words, Bush's commitment from the get-go was long term, and the goal was to help Iraqis build democratic institutions.

Also, the wording of the beginning of the article is terrible by making it seem that the irony was that Iraqis went to the polls at all (against the administration's desire to leave a puppet government?), when the Bush administration were the ones demanding that the Iraqi elections be kept on schedule, insurgency be damned!

The whole point about the newly elected Iraqi parliament being more pro-theocracy than pro-democracy is highly debateable, but that's another story. To claim that we thought that in free elections, the majority Shiites wouldn't pick Shiite rulers seems silly on it's face.

U.S. Withdraws Ambassador From Syria

It's hard for me to believe that we still had our ambassador there in the first place. I can't see what Syria was thinking if they were indeed behind this car bombing.

If you think your wildest dreams are impossible, imagine this. There was a nice Jewish boy who had a thing for athletic, intelligent Asian women but at the same time wanted to marry a nice, religious Jewish girl. He got both.

True to Her Orthodox Beliefs, if Not to Her Roots

In many ways, Rachel Factor's show is typical of one-woman performances: there's the microphone, the bar stool, the empty stage; several original songs; autobiographical monologues full of humor, pathos, bittersweet memories....

In the show, Ms. Factor, who was born Christine Horii in Hawaii, relates her journey from a high-kicking Rockette at Radio City Music Hall to Israel, where she now lives with her husband and two children. She is currently on a 41-city American tour, performing to sold-out auditoriums at synagogues, community centers and Jewish high schools, all the audiences filled exclusively with women, as her strict faith demands.

I know that this article is all about Ms. Factor, but I can't help thinking - how did Mr. Factor pull this off?

I'm hoping against hope that the contents of this report is something that, like "Mein Kampf", will be read someday soon for historical purposes and not as an explanation for current events.

“Kill A Jew – Go To Heaven”
A Study of the Palestinian Authority’s Promotion of Genocide

I can't believe that my enjoyment of ice hockey has plummeted from the euphoria of the Rangers' Stanley Cup victory in 1994 to not even caring about this:

Report: NHL will cancel season Tuesday

I can honestly say that this will have zero effect on my life. If a hockey season gets canceled in the United States and the doors to the arenas are locked, does anybody hear it?

I was in the local Barnes and Nobles kids section with the wife and kids and I decided to flip through Lynne Cheney's America : A Patriotic Primer which dedicates a 2-page spread to each letter of the alphabet with thems like "A is for Ameirica", "J is for Justice", etc. Having been written by the Republican Vice-Presdiden'ts wife, there are some that criticize the book as being a liitle to conservative. There is a page entitled "G is for God in whom we trust".

However, the book is filled with pictures of all races, creeds and religions and there is an "N for Native Americans who were here first" and a "T for Tolerance" page. (I guess gay advocates won't be able to complain about not being included since there is no such thing as an outwardly gay 6-year old.)

All this being said, there was one illustration that made me get all misty-eyed. I don't remember what page it's on, but first you have to keep in mind that it was not so long ago that blacks and whites were forced to drink from separate water fountains. In the book, there is a drawing with no particular comment next to it, of a small white boy lifting up a small black boy to drink from a fountain that otherwise would have been too high to reach.

I love my country. Thank you, Ms. Cheney for the brief reminder of what we're all about.

The truth, spoken as only a fourth-grader can.

“It’s a waste of money, but it’s fabulous,” said Shakana Jayson. “It brings happiness when you look at it.”

The Gates Central Park,New York 1979-2005

Normally I would be the last person to defend Howard Dean, new chairman of the DNC, who recently was quoted as saying, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."

I belong to the Republican Jewish Coalition (yes there are a few of us) and they have already begun their compaign against Howard Dean. It is focused around comments that Dean had made during the recent presidential primary season about America needing to be "even-handed" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (meaning don't support Israel as much) and that Hamas terrorists are "soldiers" (meaning they deserve a level of respect).

A Spirited debunking: Howard Dean and Israel shows that when taken in context, Dean's statements are actually supportive of Israel. For example, when Republicans complain that Dean called Hamas members "soldiers", he wasn't glorifying them, but rather declaring that they were valid targets for Israel to kill.

I hope the RJC can hone their skills over the next few years so that something so easliy challenged does not become their main point of attack. Unfair is unfair.

CNN News Executive Eason Jordan Quits

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amid a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq. Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.

He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place when a bomb fell, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.

"I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise," Jordan said in a memo to fellow staff members at CNN.

Nobody would have to "think" anything if the videos from Davos were released. If you were Jordan and you thought your words were misconstrued, wouldn't you want the world to see it so that you could clear your name against libelous allegations?

I guess it's easier to quit. The power of the conservative blogosphere triumphs again.

There is a lot of nasty stuff I've been willing to defend in the War on Terror. However, if this story is true, it is the first thing that I can honestly say I consider to be pure evil inflicted by our government.

Torture, American Style

Maher Arar is a 34-year-old native of Syria who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. On Sept. 26, 2002, as he was returning from a family vacation in Tunisia, he was seized by American authorities at Kennedy Airport

Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was not charged with a crime. But, as Jane Mayer tells us in a compelling and deeply disturbing article in the current issue of The New Yorker, he "was placed in handcuffs and leg irons by plainclothes officials and transferred to an executive jet."

In an instant, Mr. Arar was swept into an increasingly common nightmare, courtesy of the United States of America. The plane that took off with him from Kennedy "flew to Washington, continued to Portland, Maine, stopped in Rome, Italy, then landed in Amman, Jordan."

Any rights Mr. Arar might have thought he had, either as a Canadian citizen or a human being, had been left behind. At times during the trip, Mr. Arar heard the pilots and crew identify themselves in radio communications as members of "the Special Removal Unit." He was being taken, on the orders of the U.S. government, to Syria, where he would be tortured.

It is hard for me to believe that we can just grab a citizen of another country (much less a friendly neighbor) on a stopover and send them away to be tortured. If anything about this story turns out not to be true, Bob Herbert should be fired immediately. If it is true, we should all write letters to Congress denouncing this act.

There's a detailed timeline from the CBC here - Maher Arar: Timeline

Seems like there's some debate as to whether Canadian intelligence or police were aware of what was going on. Governemnt officials (who I wouldn't normally think would back the U.S. government over their own citizens) have been stonewalling an investigation into Canadian complicity in the deportation.

More - there's a website dedicated to Maher Arar.

I haven't posted yet about the whole Eason Jordan debate, but when a Democratic senator is calling for clarification, you know things are tilting against the chief news executive of CNN.

Sen. Dodd On Imus: "Davos Ought To Release The Tapes"

Fo rmore background on the entire affair, you might as well go to the one that is most obsessed - Easongate.

It all started with this...During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted.

Mr. Jordan is also famous for acknowledging that he kowtowed to Saddam Hussein and ignored Iraqi suffering in order to encourage CNN's access to the regime.

I posted a response to this lazy piece of journalism over at my brother-in-laws's journal, but I though it was worth posting here.

Medicare Drug Benefit May Cost $1.2 Trillion - Estimate Dwarfs Bush's Original Price Tag

It looks like the Washington Post did a good job of getting you to think that the President lied about Medicare. That's what they want you to think. All subsequent quotes are from the article.

"Beginning with his January 2003 State of the Union address, Bush pledged to keep the total cost of the drug benefit to $400 billion over 10 years. An estimate by the Congressional Budget Office was close to Bush's figure."

It seems hard to say that the president lied when the CBO, which is fully independent of the executive branch, agreed with his estimate.

(The only point of mentioning one particular person who disagreed is to get you to think that the administration knew they were wrong without actually having to prove it).

So where did the extra $200mm come from?

"Last night, in response to media inquiries, McClellan revised the numbers once more. The most significant change, he said, is that the new budget projections tally the cost of drug benefits for 10 years. Projections made in 2003 included the two transition years before the drug coverage is fully implemented in 2006."

In other words, the intial estimates by Bush (and the CBO) were based on 2004-2013 which included the first two years of partial implementation. No that it's two years later, they are looking at 2006-2015 which include not only 10 years of full coverage, but the two later years where the cost is supposed to increase due to the aging of the population and inflation.

Think of it this way - I'm certain that you hope that your earnings will be much higher from 2006-2015 than they were for 2004-2013, especially if you were working part time in 2004 and 2005.

All in all, the article is only scary to those people who don't bother with the math, which is most people. I especially like that they throw out the $1.2 trillion number in the headline which apparently has nothing to do with the actual effect on the budget.

I did kind of miss this in the morning's excitement about peace in our time in the Middle East. Do you think they write new articles every time this happens, or do they just slap a fresh date on the old ones?

Hamas says not bound by Palestinian ceasefire

Palestinian Islamist militant movement Hamas said that it was not bound by the ceasefire announced by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas at a Middle East peace summit in Egypt.

Abbas's declaration "expresses only the position of the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites). It does not express the position of the Palestinian movements," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.

In Beirut, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdaneh said the ceasefire pledge "does not commit the Palestinian resistance."

Wow.

Two sisters who survived the Holocaust and moved separately to Israel were reunited after 61 years with the help of a high-tech data base, a spokeswoman from the Israel Holocaust memorial said Sunday.

Estee Yaari of the Yad Vashem Heroes and Martyrs Memorial Authority said Klara Blaier 81, and Hannah Katz, 78, moved to Israel in 1948, each unaware that the other had survived the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II. Yaari said the two had last seen each other in Hungary in 1944, shortly after their parents had sent them from their home in the former Czechoslovakia to live with relatives.

All this talk about peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is so exciting! And the pundits said this wouldn't happen until hell freezes over!

Uh oh.

From weather.com 10:00AM EST Feb 8, 2005

Right Now for
Tehran, Iran

Light Snow 30°F Feels Like 24°F

Good for her.

Rice ignores Arafat's grave

I'm certain that no one who reads this blog will care much, but this is one of those posts of personal interest.

When I lived in Argentina about 7 years ago, my wife (then girlfriend/fiancee) lived in a quiet neighborhood outside Buenos Aires called El Palomar. I used to joke with her that it was a haven for ex-nazis because the streets had names like Wernicke (not very Spanish!) and there was an air force base nearby. Anyway, it was a pretty peaceful place - kind of like the Queens, NY of Buenos Aires.

This article from Clarin (in Spanish) talks about a recent murder of an old man in front of his home by some kids who just wanted to steal his car. This comes only a few months after another man was murdered nearby.

Sad.

The beginning of the end?

Sharon, Abbas announce mutual end to violence

"We shall all declare today that violence will not murder hope. This is the day when the process began moving forward - to bring peace for all the people of the Middle East," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared, in an emotional speech closing Tuesday's summit at Sharm e-Sheikh.



I underdstand how Ariel Sharon can end violent acts perpetrated by the Israeli army by giving a single order. But how is Abbas going to rein in the terrorist networks on his end? Here's to hoping.

If at least a temporary, but solid, peace is achieved, do you think the Nobel Prize committee will give Sharon the same credit they gave Arafat?

More good news - Egypt, Jordan to return ambassadors to Israel

Just in case you missed them, adage.com has all the Super Bowl ads. Or at least the good ones. You may have to register, but it's free.

The local press here in Dallas has been focusing quite a bit on Islamists in our neighborhoods. This was on the front page of the Dallas News the other day:

Anti-U.S. materials found at mosques

Imam Yusuf Kavakci of the Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson acknowledged that Wahhabi materials have been brought into his mosque – among scores of publications on display there – but he said he rejects the Wahhabi teachings....

But in the imam's defense:

The presence of the materials hardly makes the Richardson mosque an outpost of Wahhabi theology, Imam Kavakci said. He has had to explain to his members that some of the Saudi material does not represent his understanding of Islam.

"The Saudi approach is a problem," he said. "It's a problem for me, here."

Meanwhile, prominently featured on tonight's 10 o'clock news:

VIOLENCE-PREACHING WEB MAGAZINE LINKED TO N. TEXAS BROTHERS HEADED TO TERROR TRIAL

A radical Islamist web magazine published here, which has encouraged suicide attacks against American forces in Iraq, is hosted by a North Texas Internet company linked to three Palestinian brothers about to be tried on federal terrorism charges in Dallas, CBS-11 News has learned.

On TV, they showed video of some little Arab kid in England saying over and over that it was the Jews who did 9/11 as all his little buddies stood around laughing.

The Opinion Journal linked to an interesting example of subliminal negativity from the Associated Press which can be found in this article:

Sense of Security Grows in Baghdad

It's too early to say whether last weekend's vote has dealt a blow to the insurgency. But in Baghdad (search), where nearly a quarter of the Iraqi population lives, the absence of any catastrophic attacks in recent days has given people a cautious sense of security.

All that could change with a single deadly car bomb in the heart of the city or sustained mortar fire on the Green Zone (search).

This goes beyond the standard "but", where a news service tries to balance good news with bad news to make sure we don't get our hopes up in Iraq. This is actually making stuff up before it happens.

Or as Opinion Journal writes - Of course it could also change for the better with, say, the capture of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or further improvements in the training of Iraqi security forces. The AP here is "reporting" news that hasn't actually happened--and the only such news it anticipates is bad. Who says the press is biased?

Hey, I can play journalist too! Bulletin: Americans seem pretty confident about the economy with lower unemployment and mortgage rates, but all that could change with another 9/11-style attack on a major city. That was easy - no interviews or anything!

Please God, let these people be serious this time.


Israel, Palestinians Will Declare a Truce

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders will declare a formal end to more than four years of fighting at Tuesday's Mideast summit, both sides said Monday.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators finalized the agreement during last-minute preparations Monday.

"The most important thing at the summit will be a mutual declaration of cessation of violence against each other," said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator. An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the cease-fire agreement, adding that the deal would also include an end to Palestinian incitement.

Bush may not have an "exit" strategy - but what if his "seat of the pants" strategy is working?

Iraqis Cite Shift in Attitudes Since Vote

In the week since national elections, police officers and Iraqi National Guardsmen said they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country.

None of the officials said they believed the violence was over. An attack Sunday on a police station in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, left 22 policemen and National Guardsmen and 14 attackers dead, the Associated Press reported. The incident was a bloody end to a day in which at least nine other Iraqis were reported slain, and a U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded north of the capital. Four Egyptian engineers were kidnapped and two insurgent groups issued statements threatening to kill an Italian journalist who was taken hostage on Friday.

But officials in Baghdad said a relative lull in violence in the capital has fueled the sense that something has fundamentally changed since the vote.

Or as Charles Johnson writes - No “insurgency” can survive without at least some support in the general populace. If the mood really is turning against them, the mujahideen are on their way out.

The big story in New Yrok today is the shooting deaths of two people in broad daylight in one of the ritziest parts of town - Madison and 57th street.

JEALOUS EX MURDERS WIFE

(You didn't think I'd link to the Times for a juicy story like this, did you?)

An obsessively jealous man shot and killed his ex-wife and critically wounded her fiancé-to-be on a crowded Madison Avenue street yesterday — then turned the gun on himself in a lovers triangle turned deadly.

Vadim Ivanov, 44, shot Inessa Ivanov and John Turco in front of 598 Madison Ave. near East 58th Street at 7:24 p.m. after spending the day stalking her.

The report reminded me of another broad daylight shooting in midtown last year, also involving Russian/ex-Soviet persons.

Iced - It was about a quarter after seven when Nektalov turned onto Sixth Avenue from 47th Street, and the block was crowded with the usual mix of early-evening strollers: diamond-district workers heading home; tourists; people on their way to dinner. Nektalov, who walked this block every day, didn’t really notice. He was talking on his cell phone.

As Nektalov neared 48th Street, a long-haired man in a baseball cap, a black shirt, and black jeans walked up behind him, pulled a .45 out of the waistband of his pants, and shot the jeweler once in the back of the head.

Just seems like an odd coincidence. There aren't many midtown, daytime shootings.

U.S. jobless rate falls to 5.2%

Also of note - "With the January payroll increase and an upward revision to past data, job growth in President Bush's first term totaled 119,000, letting him avoid the stigma of being the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over net job losses."

Just a reminder of how things were a year ago by Factcheck.org:

George Bush As Herbert Hoover? Oh Come On!

Even this article which was supporting the president against a moveon.org ad didn't dare say that there might be a net gain of jobs, no matter how small.

The ad says Bush has lost 2 million jobs ‘so far,’ implying that more losses are coming. In fact, the economy has been gaining jobs since July, when the total decline in jobs since Bush took office hit nearly 2.6 million. That figure has now declined to 2.3 million and is predicted to keep shrinking in months to come.

The ad’s central claim – that Bush will finish his term with the economy employing fewer people than when he took office – probably will turn out to be correct – but barely.

Almost forgot the best part - "Comparing the Bush economy to Hoover's Great Depression is just silly, and implying that tax cuts are not contributing to job growth deserves an "F" in Freshman economics."

What kind of psychological damage must have been done to this person for them to want to build and photograph Lego concentration camps, with inmates represented by little skeletons?

P.S. These are supposedly Bosnian, not German.

This is such poor reporting on the part of the Washington Post that it can only be described as laughable.

The emotional highpoint of last night's event came near the end when Bush introduced the parents of a U.S. Marine from Texas, Sgt. Byron Norwood, who was killed in the assault on Fallujah, Iraq. As Norwood's mother tearfully hugged another woman in the gallery, the assembled senators and representatives responded with a sustained ovation, and Bush's face appeared creased with emotion.

"Another woman in the gallery"! This was the Iraqi woman who the President had just introduced to a standing ovation minutes earlier as a brave voter who's father was assassinated by Saddam's secret police.



Janet Norwood, right, of Pfugerville, Texas whose son was killed in Iraq last year, hugs Safia Taleb al-Suhail, leader of the Iraqi Women's Political Council, during the State of the Union address Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

With the number of elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the baby boom will become a senior boom. So first, and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st century....

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

President's State of the Union Address - given by Bill Clinton - February 1999.

So here we are 5 years laters, with a deficit about a trillion dollars larger and Bush gets audible derision when he suggests that the system will become insolvent 10 years later than Clinton did. And Clinton was speaking at the pinnacle of a huge economic expansion!

I'm not sure if this is a reflection of the hypcorisy of the Democratic Party in general as much as that of the individual Democrat Senators, 80% of which (35 out of 44) were on the floor applauding for Clinton.

Then again, after reading through this post at on "MSM Social Security SOTU Coverage", you may believe the hypocrisy extends to a certain liberal-heavy profession.

Will someone please explain to me how our Social Security system has become so strong after five years of a wekaer economy that the Left claims there is now no crisis at all?

Social Security - Inventing A Crisis - Paul Krugman, professor of economics

As someone who believed, hoped, worried, prayed, worried, hoped and prayed some more that Iraqis could one day pull off the election they did, I am unreservedly happy about the outcome - and you should be, too.... - Thomas Friedman

...It's about time, because whatever you thought about this war, it's not about Mr. Bush any more. It's about the aspirations of the Iraqi majority to build an alternative to Saddamism.

Normblog has a great collection of links and quotes to counter those who still believe that we should be ashamed or ambivalent about what the coalition has accomplished in Iraq.

Thanks to George W. Bush

Although there are still arguments to be made as to whether our sacrifices were "worth it" to this point, these arguments cannot be made in a vacuum. Opposition to the war seems to be centered around the idea that democracy and freedom can be brought about by peaceful means (even if it does mean that people continue to suffer and die during the "peace process").

But really, what freedom has ever been attained peacefully? Even the fall of the Berlin wall and liberation of Eastern Europe came after decades of global conflict and millions of dead fueled by the capitalist-communist standoff. Does anyone remember the American and French Revolutions (including the Reign of Terror)? The Israeli war of Independence where 1 out of every 100 Jews died fighting? Were they "worth it"? Certainly not based on modern liberal philosophy.

I understand the need to prevent loss of life and unnecessary destruction, but how can anyone think that we haven't been doing that compared to previous wars? Wasn't it just 60 years ago that dropping atomic weapons and firebombing cities were reasonable options? Wasn't it just 30 years ago that we were burning villages and destroying ecosystems with toxic chemicals? Today we use precision weapons to avoid civilian casualties, and spend billions on infrastructure projects (while the war is still going on and they can be destroyed by enemy forces!) just so that the local population doesn't suffer unnecessarily.

I'm proud to be an American. And if I'd have been at the polls on Sunday, I'd be damn proud to be an Iraqi too. They are the new torchbearers of freedom in the world. The only question now is to whom will the torch be passed?

I can already imagine the Olympic procession in the summer of 2008. Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, someone else???? Free men and women, with no one feeling sorry for them anymore. The United States might not get the loudest applause, but that's not really the point, is it? Colin Powell recently said about WWII that all America asked of Europe was for a piece of earth in which we could bury our war dead. We don't even ask for that anymore.

If there's anyone out there who still doesn't think that the goal of the NY Times is to indoctrinate it's readership to be liberal and politically correct, all you have to do is read The Girls Are Smart, Real Smart by Clyde Haberman.

The main point of the article is to prove not only that women are capable of becoming good mathematicians and scientists, but that they are more capable than men. This is in response to the comments (posted earlier) of Harvard's president who claimed that it's possible that men are innately better at math and science than women.

Before continuing I will just say that I know that men and women are different, but I don't know whether one is better equipped for these subjects than the other, and honestly I don't care. Nor do I think that if one is proven to be better than the other that we need to rehabilitate whichever is the weaker sex.

However the Times goes so far to prove Lawrence Summer wrong that it proves it's point by mentioning about the most recent winners of the Intel science awards that -

"Four (NYC) teenagers made the cutoff. Three - count 'em, three - were young women."

I'm surprised the editors didn't add an exclamation mark at the end.

This is the reason the entire article was published even though the same article admits regarding the national results that, "women accounted for 15 of the 40. That is not a dazzling percentage, perhaps, but it's none too shabby, either."

The author further acknowledges, "A scientist might caution against sweeping generalizations based on such a small sample. Still, the performance of these city kids suggests that women are more than able to strut their stuff in areas widely perceived as male domains."

Personally I think you just have to be a human being with common sense, which does not require a Phd to see that there is no news at all in this article. At least the author was trying to be intellectually honest by mentioning that the accomplishments of a few people don't necessarily refute the position of the person who he calls "Harvard's chief penitent".

And to top it all off, a little bit of self-deprecating humor.

To cite but one example, Ms. Pikovskaya's research focused on "the synthesis, purification and crystallographic identification of recently discovered metabolite-binding mRNA's (riboswitches) that are responsible for gene activation."

We would love to tell you what all that means, but our lips hurt just reading it. It is safe to say, however, that Ms. Pikovskaya and the others are smart, so smart that there is little risk of their ending up as newspaper columnists.

That's a shame as we could definitely use some more intelligent, insightful reporting.