small dead animals

Bowling For Bin Laden

A fair bit of buzz today about the 12 minutes of the Bin Laden tape that were cut to avoid showing Bush in a favourable light play better in prime time. Some are arguing that there is a Michael Mooresque quality to the script... I'm not entirely convinced.

Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape - of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday - bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military's unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

A voice in the background can be heard saying "You rucky, Bin Raden..."

Overheard Next To The Bass Box

I love rock 'n' roll
So put another tube In the pneumothorax, Baby

Top Ten Media Distortions

Media Research Center has The Ten Worst Media Distortions of Campaign 2004

Via Let It Bleed this is a must read roundup of the attempts made in the US major media to spin election coverage and commentary in Kerry's favour. Relevant to a post from a couple of days ago, scroll down to check out the chart showing the ration of bad to good stories during the Clinton administration and coverage of the US economy today.

(Now - in the interest of balance - I'm sure there is a Top Ten of Kerry distortions somewhere out there, but something tells me that in 9 of them, a football will be involved.)

Update

Just a short note to let readers know I'm still at the farm, visiting with family down for my mother's funeral. Will be home and probably back to normal posting routine in a day or two.

Kinder, Gentler Bin Laden?

My initial reaction to the Bin Laden release yesterday was about the same as Wretchard's. The tone has changed.

It is important to notice what he has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more mention of the return of Andalusia. There is no more anticipation that Islam will sweep the world. He is no longer boasting that Americans run at the slightest wounds; that they are more cowardly than the Russians. He is not talking about future operations to swathe the world in fire but dwelling on past glories. He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone. Though it is couched in his customary orbicular phraseology he is basically asking for time out.

On Larry King last evening, Walter Cronkite agrees - Bin Laden would like to negotiate. Of course, he also said this...

"Indeed. Indeed. And the thing that in bringing this threat to us, there is almost, in the fact that he dressed well, that he looked well, he was clean shaven, nearly clean shaven as those folks get."

Say, what?

update, via Instapundit; Jeff Jarvis is slowly (?) starting to see he's supporting a candidate whose party is suffering from a case of full-blown political necrotizing fasceitis...

Thomas Friedman's Memory Hole

Thomas Friedman in the New York Times....

"When the world liked Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, America had more power in the world"

James Joyner is perplexed.

When exactly was it that the world liked Ronald Reagan? Certainly, not while he was in office. Remember all the protests about his plan to put Pershing II's into Europe? The controversy over Star Wars? The business about him being a stupid cowboy?

Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was wildly popular in Europe. But how exactly did that translate into U.S. power? He was unable to secure UN backing for Kosovo and a myriad of other military operations, having instead to go it alone or with coalitions of the willing. The good will toward Clinton didn't exactly translate into freedom from terrorism, either, as al Qaeda formed and perpetrated numerous attacks on American targets under his watch.

Ahistoricism isn't just a symptom of Bush derangement syndrome - it's a prerequisite. Much of the core criticism of Bush's foreign policy absolutely hinges upon ignorance - or intentional misrepresentation - of past events. Indeed, it isn't even that uncommon for critics to move events that occured in the Clinton administration through time to attribute them to Bush, if they think it will help their case.

Case in point: the current meme that unemployment rates under Bush are "high", placed against a backdrop of Clinton prosperity and full employment. In fact, the unemployment rates in the US today are nearly identical to those under Clinton.

The same phenomenon occured under the dearly departed - and only recently beloved - Ronald Reagan. Under the heavily scorned "Reaganomics" plan, average income for the lowest one-fifth of Americans rose from $7,008 to $9431, inflation fell 48%, unemployment fell 45%, interest rates declined from 21% to under 6% . 21 million new jobs were created.

The only economic indicators that weren't affected was press coverage. Negative stories on the economic performance of the Reagan adminstration outnumbered the postive by a ration of seven to one.*

[*source- L. Brent Bozell III, Media Research Center, in Imprimis Nov. 1994]

New Hostage Video

The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera has broadcast a second video of kidnapped blog worker The Commissar, who took himself hostage last week and threatens to behead himself with his own circular saw, unless his demands are met.

The station showed footage of The Commissar demanding that American troops stay in Iraq. He also urged DynaCorp, the private security firm, to keep open its office in Baghdad, and appealed for Iraqi women prisoners to be executed.

The Commissar, who is holding himself hostage, was seized last week while at his New York office. The Commissar, 50, was born in America and has lived and worked in America for 30 years and is married to an American. He holds American citizenship.

I think this marks the "jump the shark" moment for the impact of beheading threats. Move on Jihadis.... your ratings are about to tank.

Al Qaaqaa - From Explosives Scandal to Media Scandal

It turns out that the New York Times was let off easy on the Al Qaaqaa fiasco. CBS was trying to hold the Bush-damaging story in order to run it in the final hours of the campaign - when there would be insufficient time to present the facts - but the Times broke it. The initial explanation was journalistic "competitiveness".

Except they weren't competing with CBS. They too, had planned to hold it for Monday publication - until it began to leak into the blogosphere. According to the Washington Post, their hand was forced.

On Sunday night, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller told Jeff Fager, executive producer of CBS's "60 Minutes," that the story they had been jointly pursuing on missing Iraqi ammunition was starting to leak on the Internet.

"You know what? We're going to have to run it Monday," Keller said.

Bill at INDC has the Russian angle covered (including possible connections to the "caught in the crossfire" incident involving Russian "diplomats), while Wizbang is providing updates and asking for assistance in exploring the discrepencies between the original IAEA inspections and their subsequent reports.

The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing - presumably stolen due to a lack of security - was based on "declaration" from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility.

But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency's inspectors recorded that just over 3 tons of RDX was stored at the facility - a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported.

More at Instapundit, while Powerline is covering the follow-up "reporting" by the Times and finds they are still working hard to salvage/spin this story.

Once again, the Times appears to be the only news organization in America that doesn't know that the 101st Airborne merely passed through Al Qaqaa on the way to Baghdad without searching the site. It was the 3rd ID, which reached Al QaQaa six days earlier, that knew the site needed to be searched, and did, indeed, search it. Can the Times really be this inept? I don't think so. I think it's deliberate. No newspaper could be this bad accidentally.

"Swift And Certain Response"

Lifelong Democrat Meryl Yourish is voting for George Bush.

I think Kerry is a liar and a poseur. You cannot have a career of pacifism and voting against military issues and suddenly turn around and declare yourself a fit commander-in-chief. It takes more than a campy salute and a "reporting for duty" at the DNC to make me believe Kerry is fit for command. I believe he is more unfit for command than any other candidate who ran against him, with the possible exception of Howard Dean.

And may I say that the Democratic party may lose me forever if they can't give me a candidate I can respect and believe in. The Democrats have forced my hand. I was praying for a candidate I could vote for with the confidence that he would continue the war against the fascists who would change our world into one of uncompromising totalitarianism. In the past, I would have voted Democratic regardless - hell, I voted for Walter Mondale - but not today. Today, I think our safety, and the future of our way of life, is in danger. And I don't think John Kerry gets that.

These were the nails in the coffin for me, when Kerry told the DNC:

"Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response."

That's not good enough. We are at war now; I don't want a president who will wait until we are attacked in order to respond. I want the targeted assassinations of terrorists. I want the continued isolation of terrorist nations like Syria and Iran. I want dictators like Muammar Ghadafy to be sweating for their lives and careers. I want someone who is committed to trying to plant the seed of democracy in the Middle East, not someone who thinks that is an impossibility. Kerry has indicated that his Middle East policy will be more of the same, using Clinton's failed tactics and Clinton's failed negotiators. That's not good enough.

For those who wonder (and occassionally ask outright) why I spend so much time following this election - an election outside my own country - I offer the above.

Yesterday, local talk radio host John Gormley was asking callers if they agreed with survey results that indicated a great number of Canadians considered the US election more important than our own. He was incredulous that there were people who thought so.

Ordinarily, I might agree. But these are not ordinary times and this year I hold the election in the US to be more important than any in our own. Why?

Because my country cannot protect me.

Arafat

A problem best solved with a bullet, I say.

UN: Attempting To Influence US Election?

Via Powerline; Clifford May connects the dots behind the New York Time's crumbling story about "missing bomb material" in Iraq.

The United Nations is already embroiled in the largest economic scam in world history: the multibillion dollar Oil-for-Food scandal. Now there is reason to ask whether a senior U.N., official also has attempted to influence an American election by spreading misleading information.

[...]

Here's one theory: It was Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Why would he do that? "The U.S. is trying to deny ElBaradei a second term," a high U.S. government official told me. "We have been on his case for missing the Libyan nuclear weapons program and for weakness on the Iranian nuclear weapons program."

ElBaradei also opposed the liberation of Iraq. And he would like nothing better than to see President Bush be defeated next week.

If all this is true it would amount to a major scandal: It would mean that a senior U.N. official may be changing the outcome of an American election by spreading false information. And major U.S. media outlets are allowing themselves to be manipulated in pursuit of that goal.

The Times and other news organizations also have ignored this pertinent question: Why did Saddam Hussein have the kinds of explosives favored by terrorists — and why was he permitted to keep them? Such explosives, according to the Times, also "are used in standard nuclear weapons design," and were acquired by Saddam when he "embarked on a crash effort to build an atomic bomb in the late 1980s."

[...]

Writing in The Corner, former federal terrorism prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy pointed out that U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which imposed the terms of 1991 Gulf War ceasefire, required Iraq to "unconditionally accept the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless, under international supervision, of . . . [a]ll ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres and related major parts, and repair and production facilities[.]"

Yet the IAEA made no attempt to force Saddam to comply with his obligations to destroy these "related major parts" of its ballistic missiles.

In addition, McCarthy noted, Iraq was required "not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons-usable material or any subsystems or components[,]" and, to the extent it had such items, present them for "urgent on-site inspection and the destruction, removal or rendering harmless as appropriate of all items specified above."

It shouldn't require a rocket scientist to understand that a detonator is a key component of a nuclear bomb. But according to the Times, Saddam persuaded ElBaradei that he wanted to hold on to the explosives in case they were needed "for eventual use in mining and civilian construction" - and ElBaradai agreed.

May asks good questions. It makes one wonder why the Times didn't ask them.

Pang Of Professionalism

ABC News President David Westin suffered a pang of professionalism in an address at the Harvard University's Institute of Politics last night.
Harvard Crimson:

"The more time we express our opinions, the less time we have to talk about the facts," Westin said. "Unfortunately, opinion is driving out facts too often in most of what we see on television today."

[...]

"It can be very entertaining to have two very spirited people discussing heath care in this country, but I for one would be better benefited by someone coming on and telling me exactly what the state of health care is before we talk about what ought to be done and telling me what my real options are," Westin said.

In addition to the danger of having too much opinion, news media face the danger of the blurring between fact and opinion, he said.

"If viewers see news people on different channels that look pretty much the same, on sets that look pretty much the same, and graphics that look pretty much the same, with some expressing opinion some of the time and some expressing facts, is it surprising that the audience believe that they're all expressing facts?" Westin asked.

Via Drudge.

Scene From The Gas Pumps

A car pulled up for fuel at one of the local gas stations yesterday.

Hello sir, would you like it filled?
Yes, thanks.
What with?
Whatever's cheapest.

So, he filled it with diesel.

Khmer Rouge Embraces Jesus

A headline ripped from the pages of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up"...

Khmer Rouge Embraces Jesus

The Guardian:

The Khmer Rouge followed a harsh brand of communism, killing nearly two million people in their bid to return Cambodia to Year Zero. Now they have a new faith: evangelical Christianity.

Hundreds of former fighters have been baptised in the past year. The Khmer Rouge's mountain stronghold, the town of Pailin in south-west Cambodia, has four churches, all with pastors and growing congregations. At least 2,000 of those who followed Pol Pot, the guerrillas' former leader who died six years ago, now worship Jesus.

Many new converts were involved in the bloody battles, massacres and forced labour programmes that led to the Killing Fields. Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge sought to eradicate religion, ripping down the country's biggest cathedral, killing Muslim clerics and turning Buddhist temples into pigsties.

According to one pastor, 70 per cent of the converts in Pailin are Khmer Rouge. For many, it offers a hope of salvation. 'When I was a soldier I did bad things. I don't know how many we killed. We were following orders and thought it was the right thing to do,' said Thao Tanh, 52. 'I read the Bible and I know it will free me from the weight of the sins I have committed.'

(Hat tip - Kathy Shaidle at the Shotgun, who thinks this "kinda" vindicates Ann Coulter.)

Hanoi John

A buzz has been running through the blogosphere since last night about this story.

The communist regime in Hanoi monitored closely and looked favorably upon the activities of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War during the period Senator Kerry served most actively as the group's spokesman and a member of its executive committee, two captured Viet Cong documents suggest.

The documents - one dubbed a "circular" and the other a "directive" - were captured in 1971 and are part of a trove of material from the war currently stored at the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University at Lubbock. Originally organized by Douglas Pike, a major scholar who is now deceased, the archive contains more than 20 million documents. Many are available online at the Virtual Vietnam Archive and, as the election has heated up, have been the focus of a scramble for insights into Mr. Kerry's anti-war activities. The Circular and the Directive are listed as items numbered 2150901039b and 2150901041 respectively. Their authenticity was confirmed by Stephen Maxner, archivist at the Vietnam Archive.

My first reaction to this story? Well, duh.

... more than 350 Americans secretly worked for Soviet intelligence during World War II -- when the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. A number of them served in very high positions in the U.S. government. Harry Dexter White was assistant secretary of the Treasury and played a key role in creating the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, pillars of the postwar world monetary structure. Lauchlin Currie was one of a half-dozen special assistants to President Franklin Roosevelt. Laurence Duggan was in charge of U.S. relations with Latin America.

The Venona story.

If Soviet communists could be this successful at infiltrating the highest levels of the US government, how difficult do you think it would be to influence Vietnam protest groups? One could hardly consider their goals to be in conflict.

Personal Notes

I went to visit my mom for the last time yesterday. She passed away this evening in Arcola hospital. I'm sure the two hour road trip must have hastened her death, but it was clear that she really wanted to be out of Regina General and "home". I can't say that I blame her.

The blogging has been a useful distraction over the past days, and I suspect, it will continue to serve that purpose for a few more. It goes without saying that activity here will be light for the rest of the week.

This space wasn't set up to be a window into my personal life, and even if it were, my Scottish genes wouldn't allow it. So, while I appreciate any sentiments you may wish to share, I'd really prefer you take those few moments to sit down and tell a young person that a very good woman left the world tonight, years before she should have, because she made the choice as a teenager to pick up a cigarette.

Goodnight.

Kerry In The Land Of Make Believe, con't

A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case.

"Who told you?" he demanded as he reached inside. "My friends don't know about this." The leather was a little mildewy.

"My good luck sea monster skin," Kerry said, happy to see it. "Given to me by a sanpan fishermen as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia."

A Request For The Blogosphere

Back in August, in a post about the accredited bloggers at the Republican National Convention, I made this point;

Now, if there are any Canadian Conservative party members lurking about, would you please sit up and pay attention;

These bloggers are, in no small way, responsible for the recent downturn in the polls for John Kerry, through their relentless pursuit of the Swift Boat contraversy, keeping it alive, digging up documentation and expert military analysis when the mainstream media was avoiding it like the plague. They pushed past the major networks, the New York Times, WaPo and kept this story alive. Both the Democrats and Republicans have recognized the phenomenon of citizen journalism and news analysis and are finding ways to use it to their advantage - but for the Republicans, with the handicap of a predominantly Democrat leaning media - the importance of the internet cannot be "misunderestimated".

With a minority government, and the potential of another election over the horizon, the gatekeepers at the CBC, Globe, Toronto Star to contend with - I hope that someone in party headquarters is looking at finding ways to incorporate the Canadian blogosphere into the machinery of the Conservative Party.

Well, someone was. I recieved this email last week, and promised to pose the question to the blogosphere in general.

I've noticed that a few weeks ago you commented on the impact that bloggers have had on American politics and asked why the Conservatives weren't using blogs similarly in Canada. I work for a fairly prominent Conservative politician and am quite interested in hearing how you think blogs could be used to change the dynamic in Canada.

I'm a big fan of blogs having read them for the past three years and certainly can see their impact in the US on several stories ranging from the Rather affair to Trent Lott's collapse. However I don't think they've really had any similar impact in Canada. The only mild influence of the blogosphere on Canada politics I can think of was Andrew Coyne's use of his blog to find a name for the sponsorship scandal and successfully get Adscam used widely.

Having seen first hand how the media could twisted and spun the Conservatives in the last election I am highly eager to see the blogosphere develop into a actual force that can counteract the Globe/CBC/Toronto Star near stranglehold on the Canadian media. So far I don't think it's happened and if you have suggestions as to what politicians can to do encourage it I would interested in hearing about it.

There's your assignment, folks. Posts and trackbacks invited from anyone with thoughts or observations to share, on either side of the border.

I have some of my own ideas, and I'll post on those later.

2004 Best Blogs

2004 Best Blogs - Politics & Elections Readers' Choice Awards

Congratulations to some of my favorites!

Team America: Roger Ebert Is An Idiot

Roger Ebert gave this movie a single star. I can't say I'm surprised. This is a man who will undoubtedly place Michael Moore's discredited "documentary" on his Ten Best for 2004.

If I were asked to extract a political position from the movie, I'd be baffled. It is neither for nor against the war on terrorism, just dedicated to ridiculing those who wage it and those who oppose it. The White House gets a free pass, since the movie seems to think Team America makes its own policies without political direction.

I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.

Really, Roger?

Were we watching the same film?

Sure, there were moments when the trigger happy "Team America" members went over the top, but you know, there was a certain "inanimate object" aspect to their "collateral damage" - the Eiffel Tower, the Sphinx...

But, were you out taking a p*** during the scene involving the terrorist bombing of the Panama Canal, Roger? Did you not notice how completely unfunny the movie suddenly became when those "dead" puppets were bobbing in the floodwaters?

Come to think of it, how did your review manage to omit mention of the left's cult-hero Michael Moore - a suicide bomber, inside Mount Rushmore? Certainly, that had to be one of the most politically charged "statements" of the film. Hans Blix, being torn to pieces in Kim Jong-il's shark tank - did you sleep through that or just close your eyes in horror?

Finally, the biggest hint of them all - how did it end, Roger? Who "saves the world" from destruction? Alex Baldwin? Sean "rivers of chocolate" Penn?

Team America is a funny, funny movie. The sex scenes would someday join those "moments in movie history" - if you could actually show them during a "moments in movie history" retrospective. This movie outragiously, gloriously slays all the sacred cows of the politically correct. Contrary to all prior warnings, I was never offended.

I left thinking that this movie was not at all what the reviewers would have you believe it is. It has one of the most deadly serious undercurrents of any "comedy" I've seen in a very long time. Maybe because of the absurdity, exaggeration and the bawdiness, that undercurrent is more easily avoided or overlooked, but for me, it was just driven home more starkly because of the contrast. Perhaps it's the fact that the stance taken by Parker and Stone - a vicious indictment of the left, of the entertainment industry and the cancer of anti-Americanism that infects and undermines the war on Islamic fascism - is so counter-Hollywood and so rare.

Go see this film.

(Don't take grandma.)

Kerry In The Land Of Make Believe

Kerry campaign shaken. More here.

Make-Believe News: Update - Kerry meets Security Council members, wearing hat he was given by CIA agent in Cambodia, right after running the Boston Marathon with his Chinese assault rifle slung over his back.

Getting hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

Update #2 from the Land Of Make Believe via Wizbang:

According to an ESPN interview, Sen. John Kerry claimed to be just "30 yards away" from Bill Buckner's infamous error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series. That fateful game was held at Shea Stadium in New York on October 25, 1986.

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire reports that a Boston Globe article places Kerry in Boston that night at a banquet.

related:

In August, I was talking with Kerry's scheduler about possible dates. On Sept. 1, Kerry began his intense criticism of Bush's decisions in the Iraq war, saying "I would've done almost everything differently." A few days later, I provided the Kerry campaign with a list of 22 possible questions based entirely on Bush's actions leading up to the war and how Kerry might have responded in the same situations. The senator and his campaign have since decided not to do the interview, though his advisers say Kerry would have strong and compelling answers.

Update #3 - Hell, why not?

Three Assassins. Three Presidents.

Nicholas Packwood notices that the Guardian's website has been Drudgealanched/Instalanched off line. For this:

"On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And S**'s law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?"

Apparently overlooked by the leftist rag from across the pond - the targets of those three gunman so "needed" were none other than Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

"Wrong"... Wrong.

When this Herald-Palladium item by Anna Clark floated up on Drudge a couple of days ago, I wondered why it didn't create a news frenzy. Perhaps others noticed, as I did, that the word "wrong" in Clark's report had been wrestled down to a single word quote.

Tenet: CIA made errors

Tenet called the war on Iraq "wrong" in a speech Wednesday night to 2,000 members of The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center. He did not elaborate.

Today, the Herald-Palladium offers this "clarification";

Former CIA Director George Tenet told the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan on Wednesday that the United States was wrong on its pre-war intelligence in Iraq, but an article in Thursday's Herald-Palladium may have put the comment in an incorrect context.

The story said Tenet called the war in Iraq "wrong." However, after reviewing the reporter's notes (Tenet barred reporters from using tape recorders), the newspaper now believes Tenet used the word "wrong" in the context of U.S. intelligence, not on the direct question of whether the United States should be in Iraq.

To their credit, I don't think the original story has been airbrushed (yet), but they should really add this disclaimer to the original online item.

Memo To Stewart: Satire Requires Truth

A good deal has been made of the exchange between Jon Stewart vs Tucker Carlson on CNN's Crossfire.

STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

[In our next segment, Genius Jon accuses Food Channel of recipe mongering.]

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...
(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.
(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: What is wrong with you?
(APPLAUSE)

CARLSON: Well, I'm just saying, there's no reason for you -- when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy's butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It's embarrassing.

STEWART: I was absolutely his butt boy. I was so far -- you would not believe what he ate two weeks ago.
(LAUGHTER) (CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.

CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.

STEWART: You need to go to one. The thing that I want to say is, when you have people on for just knee-jerk, reactionary talk...

CARLSON: Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny.

STEWART: No. No. I'm not going to be your monkey.
(LAUGHTER)

BEGALA: Go ahead. Go ahead.

STEWART: I watch your show every day. And it kills me.

CARLSON: I can tell you love it.

STEWART: It's so -- oh, it's so painful to watch.
(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: You know, because we need what you do. This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get politicians off of their marketing and strategy.

CARLSON: Is this really Jon Stewart? What is this, anyway?

STEWART: Yes, it's someone who watches your show and cannot take it anymore.
(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: I just can't.

I can't take Jon Stewart anymore, either. Why? Not because he's a partisan hack, which he is - but because in the friendly studio in which he practices his hackery, he's forgotten something fundamental about his trade - to be genuine, satire requires unwavering honesty.

Jon Stewart's "satire" fails that test. His pieces are too often based on falsehood or half truth. He relies on discredited memes and convenient headlines. He uses Iraqi casualties to make "funny" with a partisan audience - not in so many words, but if you watch the segment called "Messopotamia", that's what it is. Anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with current events cannot find much to laugh at watching the Daily Show. You know too much. His shallow cheap shots are offensive - because they insult the intelligence.

Jon Stewart may offer up the defense that he does comedy, in order to deflect criticism of the insincerity of his satire, but for someone who has built a show based on "fake news", he really ought to follow the news a little more closely, if only to retain his professional integrity.

The Wall Street Journal's James Bowman doesn't buy it either.

Mr. Stewart used his appearance on "Crossfire" to make a serious point, yet when it was taken up seriously he tried to retreat into his characteristic pose as a harmless comedian. "You are on CNN," he said to Mr. Carlson when accused of sucking up to Mr. Kerry; "the show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls."

So then we shouldn't pay any attention to him when he tries to be serious? I don't think he quite meant to say that, and yet he is saying it, in effect, all the time. Under the cover of humor, his show routinely makes vicious points about, say, the Iraq war. Are we meant to think of the puppets when we hear such "Daily Show" bits or when Mr. Stewart endorses Mr. Kerry for president?

The underlying theme to Stewart's comedy isn't the bashing of conservativism and the current Republican administration - it's deeper. In his presentation of "facts" , Stewart treats his decidely left-leaning audience like uniformed morons - and, judging by the applause he generates, they generally are. And that is where the real satire of the Daily Show resides. Not with the quality of the news, but in the quality of the audience.

I just wish it were funnier.

Stolen Honor

Roger Simon reviews Stolen Honor.

The movie consists of interviews with now gray or graying men who were incarcerated and tortured in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. Their stories are juxtaposed with the testimony of John Kerry at the Winter Soldier hearings. Despite the quality of the filmmaking, and my poor viewing conditions, I was deeply disturbed while watching this. It is not a "filmic" experience in the traditional sense. While viewing this movie, I imagine most of my generation find themselves reviewing themselves and their actions at the time rather than the film. I am far from resolving my view of Vietnam, although I still tend to think it was the wrong war. But the behavior of some factions of the antiwar side, factions which I fully supported then, were clearly out of line and as reprehensible as the war they wished to protest and central among those was Winter Soldier.

Some reviewers, like the NYT's Alessandra Stanley, made light of the testimony of John Kerry before those hearings as something we heave "heard before" and therefore of little importance, preferring to focus on the unresolved pain of the former prisoners. But the fact that we have heard at least some of Kerry's testimony before is beside the point. The testimony has never been explained. Kerry lied about his fellow soldiers in a serious and, it seems evident, conscious manner, going so far as to say they cut off peoples' ears, raped and pillaged like Genghis Khan. Even given the passions of the time, this defamation is hard to explain. No wonder the Democratic Party wants us to look away. I wanted to look away. It is hard to conceive someone of so little moral compass is going to lead us in a time of war. Still, I suppose I could forgive Kerry if he had apologized for this in full as the recklessness of youth. But until now he hasn't. The Democratic Party knows this too. That's why they also want us to look away. It is over thirty years ago and therefore, they wish us to believe, beyond the statute of electoral limitations. No it's not.

Wall Street Journal has more on the extraordinary pressure placed on Sinclair to pull this documentary.

Pamela Says A Prayer

Daytona Beach News-Journal columnist PamelaHasterok took advantage of early voting in Florida.

Read to the bottom. See if you can guess who she voted for.

Photographic Evidence

... and he types with one finger.

Pie Toss Goes Horribly Wrong

How do you know when your assailants aren't right wingers?

related.....

Goosegate?

Radio Blogger is all over this breaking story.

Kerry was in Cambodia in Christmas of '68, but can't prove it.

He has a magic CIA hat from his secret missions running guns and CIA agents into Cambodia, but no one has seen it.

He ran the Boston marathon either in the 70's, 1980, 1982, multiple times, or never. There's no record of a qualifying race to get him in, and he doesn't remember his time.

He had a chance to shoot the mother of all deer, a 16 pointer, on Cape Cod, but didn't pull the trigger.

Sorry, John. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me fifteen times, forget about it. Show me the goose. But the more I think about it, that's not good enough.

He's calling for a goose autopsy

.

Live Blogging Neal McLennan

Movie reviewer Neal McLennan on Team America, World Police On John Gormley Live

"I don't even know what to say about this movie... it's just simply bizarre. "

"Not a movie for kids. At all."

"so so so not for children..."

"Fantastically crude. I can't quote you any lines because they are so far beyond the pale in terms of bad taste."

"Language is unbelievable"

"The sexual situations are as graphic as you can get with two wooden puppets"

"Flip side... one of the best, which is pathetic... political satires I've seen in years and years and years..."

"One long pulling down the pants of the self righteous on the right and on the left."

"7.5 out of 10"

"When I say this is offensive, I'm not saying just for children. 35 year dock workers are going to be offended."

Comparisons: Dr.Strangelove and Network

"The funniest puppet movie of all time, the most offensive puppet movie of all time."

Now I really want to see this thing.

Synchrotron: Roots In Nazi Germany

Today is the grand opening of the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron.

Where on Earth is Saskatoon, Saskatchewan," Gerhard Herzberg asked his Jewish wife Luise after receiving a letter from John Spinks of the University of Saskatchewan.

[...]

From small events great things come and it can be argued that the Canadian Light Source (CLS) -- the largest scientific laboratory built in Canada in a generation and the jewel in the country's innovation crown -- grew out of the serendipitous meeting of these two men, cast together through a mutual love of scientific exploration and, in today's climate, almost unimaginable hard times.

According to Gerhard Herzberg: An Illustrious Life in Science, written by Boris Stoicheff, the U of S was one of a handful of universities around the world willing and able to capitalize on Adolf Hitler's decision to pass the Law for the Restoration of the Career Civil Service.

This law, which required public servants considered to be non-Aryans to leave their jobs, convinced a number of the world's top physicists to look for opportunities abroad -- including Albert Einstein, who resigned his position with the Prussian Academy of Science and took a position with Princeton University in the U.S.

Herzberg had been on the faculty at the University of Gottingen, which was renowned for its physics.

He found many students and faculty at the university accepted Hitler's decrees and was shocked when the faculty of agriculture condemned James Franck, a Nobel Laureate who had won the first and second Iron Crosses in the First World War for bravery.

Franck went on to work on the Manhattan Project.

Although Herzberg was a German, and could prove it, his decision to remain with his wife meant he was considered a second-class citizen and was denied the right to teach German students.

In 1933, in the midst of the upheaval brought on by the Nazis, Herzberg received the letter from Spinks, a scientist in Saskatoon, asking for permission to work in the German scientist's already world famous laboratory.

Within two years of the two scientists working together and becoming friends, Spinks was able to repay the Herzberg's hospitality.

Great article by the Star Phoenix. It will open to public tours on the 30th.

(Previous post here.)

Drudge Is Mean

The wife of the "other" JFK... so much like Jackie.

Just Another Tile In The Canadian Mosaic

Excerpts from recorded lectures given by Sheik Younus Kathrada;

"We know what happened over the last week and how the brothers of the monkeys and the swine assassinated and murdered one of the heroes of Islam, the Salah al-Din of this day and age, Ahmed Yassin.

"Once again they've shown their treachery; once again they've shown that they are cowards and that they cannot be trusted."

[...]

"The prophet . . . said the final hour will not be established until such time as the Muslims will battle and will fight against the Jews.

"Then what will happen? Listen to the good news after that. The prophet . . . says that the stone and the tree will say 'oh Muslim, oh slave of Allah, that verily behind me is a Jew. Then come and kill him.' . . . It is not meant to be understood metaphorically but rather literally.

"Unfortunately we hear too many people saying we must build bridges with them. No. They understand one language. It is the language of the sword and it is the only language they understand."

[...]

"When the Muslims have a leader, when the Muslims have the strength and the ability to take on an enemy, then absolutely they call the other nations towards Islam. Should they reject the message then they will declare war upon them.

"That is what we know as the offensive jihad. There is a good reason for that. It is in order to establish security on this earth. It is so that the word of Allah will be the superior word."

[...]

"I mentioned to you a while ago that it should be all of our intentions that one day we be martyred. If it is not I say revise yourself. Look deep into your heart because there is some hypocrisy in it.

"It is inconceivable that a true believer will not desire martyrdom."

... leader of the Dar al-Madinah Islamic Society of Vancouver.

Update - Peaktalk has a related post.

John Kerry Supports

http://www.johnkerry.com source for all photos.

So if you don't think it's funny, tell them to get better material.

Heh.

Global Mathematical Error

Um.... wrong.

"The dog is out of position"

Drudge has a hilarious report up from the Kerry hunting photo-op this morning.

Exerpts:

In lieu of actual information, we put our heads together and came up with some details for this pool report. The primary area of wager was whether Mr. Kerry would return with game at all.

HE WOULD NOT: Fearing a backlash from soccer moms and PETA freaks, he decides to return empty- handed with that age-old phrase employed by failed hunters: I don't do it to kill things; I just like being outdoors. But, that could undermine the manliness that he has so carefully cultivated since launching his campaign.

HE WOULD, DEAD: Be bold. Kill something. Come back holding limp ducks by their wrung necks in your bloody fingers. Win back those security moms. This would have been the strategy advised by Bill Clinton, whom Mr. Kerry talks to by phone very often.

HE WOULD, DEAD, CLEANED, DRESSED FROM FOOD LION: Return with several fattened (thought not for their livers as that would come perilously close to something French), beautifully yellowed birds that were purchased from the local supermarket last night. This would allow him to appear bold, willing to hunt down and kill the enemy, but wouldn't be too scarily unfamiliar to people who don't hunt. "You should always come dressed for dinner," he would explain.

HE WOULD, BUT IT ISN'T A DUCK: This theory developed into the most desirous. He returnsvictorious, but with Osama bin Laden, who had been hiding out in the backside of the farm. Turns out that immediately after President Bush outsourced the capturing of him in Tora Bora to the Afghan warlords, Mr. Bin Laden climbed into a container of poppy gum and arrived through a port in Newark. The container, of course, went uninspected. With so few police officers on the street, Mr. Bin Laden had no problem wandering America unmolested.

[...]

At 8:53, distant wails of geese could be heard from beyond tree-line to east of house, where as hunting party was to north of house. Roughly 60 large Canada geese emerged over tree line and - as if trained to do so if at the last minute no birds had been slaughtered in this great authentic moment of modern American politics - made a beeline for Mr. Kerry and his camo-clad comrades. Suddenly, an explosion of gunfire. It was enough to evoke flashbacks in your pooler, who really was in diapers when Mr. Kerry fought in Cambodia or Vietnam or wherever.

Whoever wrote this should be doing comedy.

(Drudge doesn't leave items up very long, so instead of just linking to it, I've grabbed the whole thing. You can read it in the extended entry.)

Pool Report
Kerry hunting
October 21, 2004
Eight minutes from the heart of downtown Boardman, Ohio

Pool gathered and was swept at downtown Boardman Holiday Inn at 5:45. After waiting better part of 45 minutes, we moved out at 6:25. We bivouacked at Molnar Farm eight minutes later at 6:37. Four minutes later, the sun officially rose at 6:41, according to the Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory. It was misting so we were left to figure it was overcast, giving birds a few more minutes of shut-eye past sunrise - no hard feelings.

As we waited in the vans and on the short ride out into the wilderness, the realization settled over us that the heart of this would be nothing more than a grand photo op of Mr. Kerry walking out of the woods with a duck, or possibly without a duck, or possibly one that one of his staffers shot but he then swam out and retrieved and resuscitated. Anyway, we realized we weren't going to see any bloodshed. Patsy flipped open her phone, dialed up Loftus and valiantly expressed the communal outrage. Rapid response went into full swing. He said we weren't included in actual hunt
because the AP would object to it for some reason. Not true, said Nedra, who sat beside her. Precedent, he said. Patsy reeled off the stats from every presidential campaign hunt since Reagan. "I mean, he's going out into the woods with men who have guns. We should have someone there," she reasoned.

He split hairs. Patsy explained to Loftus that your pooler very much wanted to go hunting with the next leader of the free world. But for some reason, the thought of a reporter from The Washington Times observing Mr. Kerry revealing who he really is did not sway the campaign.
So, as Mr. Kerry trundled out into the wilds under a rising sun to hunt ducks eight minutes outside Boardman, we were left with nothing to do but hunt canards.

In lieu of actual information, we put our heads together and came up with some details for this pool report. The primary area of wager was whether Mr. Kerry would return with game at all.

HE WOULD NOT: Fearing a backlash from soccer moms and PETA freaks, he decides to return empty- handed with that age-old phrase employed by failed hunters: I don't do it to kill things; I just like being outdoors. But, that could undermine the manliness that he has so carefully cultivated since launching his campaign.

HE WOULD, DEAD: Be bold. Kill something. Come back holding limp ducks by their wrung necks in your bloody fingers. Win back those security moms. This would have been the strategy advised by Bill Clinton, whom Mr. Kerry talks to by phone very often.

HE WOULD, DEAD, CLEANED, DRESSED FROM FOOD LION: Return with several fattened (thought not for their livers as that would come perilously close to something French), beautifully yellowed birds that were purchased from the local supermarket last night. This would allow him to appear bold, willing to hunt down and kill the enemy, but wouldn't be too scarily unfamiliar to people who don't hunt. "You should always come dressed for dinner," he would explain.

HE WOULD, BUT IT ISN'T A DUCK: This theory developed into the most desirous. He returnsvictorious, but with Osama bin Laden, who had been hiding out in the backside of the farm. Turns out that immediately after President Bush outsourced the capturing of him in Tora Bora to the Afghan warlords, Mr. Bin Laden climbed into a container of poppy gum and arrived through a port in Newark. The container, of course, went uninspected. With so few police officers on the street, Mr. Bin Laden had no problem wandering America unmolested.

Ultimately, we'll just have to wait to find out. But one thing is clear: we'll never know for certain if Mr. Kerry can shoot a bird in flight.

Walking from the vans into the cozy little farmhouse where a mini-file has been set up, we asked Wade and Loftus for any details. They, inexplicably, were whispering. Kerry apparently marched out with Rep. Ted Strickland and a security detail to hunt from a blind set up on the edge of a marshy area beside a harvested cornfield. It is set up some 500 yards from here. Locals say the geese and ducks swarm the fields after harvest. He is wearing a camo jacket that was purchased in Boardman. They are hunting with a yellow lab named Woody.

But, again, all of this is second-hand information. There has been some speculation - based on similarly-unconfirmed reports - that this is actually a golf course and that Mr. Kerry is currently crouched in the sand pit behind the third hole. The geese are much easier to hit that way and no
one would be offended if you killed them.Will report back if details emerge.

Pool report #2
Kerry duck hunt
At 8:33, someone - hard to make out who it was for the camo coat - was frolicking with a yellow dog about 100 yards into a cut field. Pooler wandered over to edge of field and alerted photogs of the possible photo op. Pooler was quickly reigned in and herded back to the other side of house,
which obstructed view. Was told that he wanted to hunt for another 15 minutes. For some reason, we were all still whispering.

Kerry hunt news flash
Geese flew overhead, a dozen shots fired.
Kerry just returned.
Four geese killed.
Kerry carried his own gun but had someone carrying his goose.
We're loaded up to move back to hotel.
Will file full report shortly.

Pool Report #4
Kerry duck hunt
At 8:49, still no shots heard from around the house. Nor did pooler ever hear any goose or duck calls.

Molnar Farms is owned by Rick and Jill Molnar who have a roadside fruit and vegetable stand. A sign out front advertises apples, sweet corn, pumpkins, cider and other things. Under fruit stand shed, various police and motorcade drivers gathered for coffee and hot cider. Three empty camo soft gun cases sat on a counter. Also, a still-boxed, broken down 12 gauge camo shotgun was in a cardboard box. Make unknown. Pooler did not reach to open box as most of the people under shed were armed and pooler feared them.

Also: a box of 12 ga., three-inch steel shot cartridges was on the counter, legal ammo for shooting over water. But for all we know, Mr. Kerry may have been using lead shot, which wouldbe illegal for waterfowl.

At 8:53, distant wails of geese could be heard from beyond tree-line to east of house, where as hunting party was to north of house. Roughly 60 large Canada geese emerged over tree line and - as if trained to do so if at the last minute no birds had been slaughtered in this great authentic moment of modern American politics - made a beeline for Mr. Kerry and his camo-clad comrades. Suddenly, an explosion of gunfire. It was enough to evoke flashbacks in your pooler, who really was in diapers when Mr. Kerry fought in Cambodia or Vietnam or wherever. There were so many shots in the course of 15 seconds that it was impossible to count the number. Certainly, everybody unloaded their guns and possibly even reloaded (Assuming they were not using some sort of large-capacity assault weapons, which would be thoroughly illegal. But we'll never know.). The honking of the geese changed from calm and plaintive to upset and confused as the flock hurried back to cruising altitude and separated into two still-large groups. A smaller - apparently smarter - group left the farm altogether. A larger group came back toward the house, where some35 reporters and cameramen with fuzzy booms and long-lense cameras were snapping and whirring away. This appeared to further disturb the geese who flared in various directions, not to be heard from again - or so we thought.

Much relieved and even chirpy, staffers began herding us around the building to a hay trailer set up beside the cornfield from which we could view the moment of his emergence from the field. Not that it was staged or anything, Loftus explained: "He's going to walk down that line of corn. He'llturn down there and walk up this way. Then we will move with great dispatch up there." No questions were to be asked, we were informed. The four hunting men and yellow dog (a Democrat, pooler assumes) seemed to - from such a distance - crystalize out of thin air with all their camo on.

They walked along the line of corn that was still standing. Each man carried a gun. Three mencarried dead Canada geese. Mr. Kerry was empty-handed, but for his gun. A man walked farup ahead - outside a normal picture frame - carrying a fourth limp goose. Mr. Kerry's gun was an double-barrel, over/under 12 ga. shotgun. It was breached and he carried it in the crook of his arm, like a true gentleman. The other men, carried pump or semi-auto long guns that appeared to be 12 ga. shotguns as well. As they approached with the rust-colored trees as a backdrop, photogs snapped crazily and marveled at the perfect frame. Indeed, they looked like catalogue models on the cover of a Cabella's magazine. Their voices could be heard but not what they were saying. They were clearly animated and exuberant over their success. Woody, the yellow dog, was the only one who seemed to stray from stage notes. He kept running up to the man ahead carrying the fourth bird, then racing back to the four hunters, only to tag them and race back ahead.

"The dog is out of position," sighed one shooter. Dog owner blew whistle and dog returned to a flurry of picture snaps.

Once in earshot:
Q: Did you shoot any geese, senator?
A: thumbs up.
Q: You get any?
A: Everybody got one. Everybody got one.
Q: Why aren't you carrying yours?
A: (laughter) Too lazy.
Q: Heavy?
A: No, still giddy over the Red Sox. It was hard to focus.
(Thanks to Jim Malone of VOA Radio for exact quotes.)

In addition to Mr. Strickland, the hunting party included Bob Bellino, board member of local DucksUnlimited, and Neal Brady, a state park manager. More information on these guys in included in morning briefing sent by campaign.

There is no information who Mr. Kerry's bird boy was. Immediately after Mr. Kerry completed his "walk-by," we were rounded up and herded back around house to waiting vans. After a few minutes, the motorcade moved us back to hotel file center. We arrived at 9:15. As we got out of the vans, the lonesome calls of geese could be heard again overhead. It was decided that they had followed the motorcade, weeping over the casualties.

Report #5
It's 10:53. We're loaded up for airport but haven't left yet. A note from photogs. Lots of blood on Kerry's left hand. Pooler suggested it was from fetching downed bird and possibly wringing its neck if it were still kicking, flipping and flopping, perhaps flip-flopping. Photog saw Mr. Kerry shaking his entire hand way up field as if he'd injured hand.

When he walked by, he'd tucked his hand up into his sleeve so it couldn't be seen. Suppose we'll have to wait for after-action report, but as we all know, Purple Heart citations can be vague.

Report # 6
At 11:32, the candidate arrived for flight to Youngstown. He'd shed his camo for his barn coat. No injury was visible to his left hand from pooler's perspective on tarmac. He greeted several supporters. Jogging up steps, he was asked where his bird was. "Being cleaned," he said, waving his hands in the motion of bird cleaning.

Note: Your pooler was seated on press plane, unable to cover any gaggle that might occur on main plane. Will transcribe any recordings someone kindly supplies upon landing. Pooler told he'll be back on main plane for flight to Milwaukee.

Clarification: Staffers advise that Mr. Kerry broke no laws this morning with the type of shells he used to kill his goose. He was not "breaking the law by using lead bullets," S. Cutter emailed. "They were steel shots."

END

The Israel Factor

Rick Richman notes that The Jewish Press has endorsed George Bush.

[A]s the [New York] Times Magazine interviewer said of Mr. Kerry's statement that he is committed to destroying terrorists "effectively":

This was a word that Kerry came back to repeatedly in our discussions; he told me he would wage a more "effective" war on terror no less than 18 times in two hours of conversations. The question, of course, was how.

It should be noted that in the second presidential debate Mr. Kerry stated 23 times, without adding anything more, that he "has a plan."

Is there any question that President Bush can be relied upon to more forcefully prosecute the war on terror?

Richman adds this:

It is hard to imagine John Kerry leading the Not Primarily a War on Terror.

It is impossible to imagine him mobilizing anyone behind the Wrong War Wrong Place Wrong Time. His election would be the Spanish election writ large.

And it is easy to imagine Kerry appeasing Old Europe's views on Israel, as he seeks to pass the global test.

Iran Rejects European Offer Of Nuclear Fuel

Europe is no better at selling uranium to Iran than John Kerry is.

In order to defend its ability to enrich Uranium beyond the requirement of civilian needs, Iran makes several arguments:

Uranium enrichment is a legitimate right that is reserved to every NPT member state.

Denial of Iran's right by the international community or the surrendering of this right by Iran is a detriment to Iran's national interests.

Iran has cooperated fully and transparently with the IAEA. [4]

Preventing Iran from enriching Uranium is part of an anti-Iranian scheme by the U.S. and its followers.

Europe has failed to meet its obligations to provide Iran with advanced nuclear technology and to close the investigation file against Iran's nuclear activities by the IAEA in return for a voluntary and temporary halt of enrichment activities, as was agreed in the 'Tehran and Brussels understandings.' [5]

The Western countries retain a Monopoly on nuclear technology and see Iran as a nuclear fuel export market, thus trying to coerce it to buy fuel from them.

It is cheaper for Iran to produce nuclear fuel than to import it from the West.

How the fuck is Iran supposed to destroy the Zionist state without it?

Iranian officials did not close the door, however, suggesting that they may be willing to negotiate with 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.

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