October 31, 2004
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..."
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.)
October 30, 2004
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...
October 28, 2004
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.
October 27, 2004
"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.
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.
October 26, 2004
Khmer Rouge Embraces Jesus
A headline ripped from the pages of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up"...
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.
October 25, 2004
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.
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?
October 23, 2004
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 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.
October 22, 2004
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.)
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.
October 21, 2004
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.
"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:
Iranian officials did not close the door, however, suggesting that they may be willing to negotiate with 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter.
October 20, 2004
It's Not Apathy. It's Malpractice.
Via Protein Wisdom - NRO's The Corner does a little media comparison shopping...
For anyone who wants to quibble with the notion that the media favor Kerry, consider this: Since January 1, 2004, here are the number of morning and evening news stories and interview segments the networks have devoted to uncovering the growing United Nations Oil for Food program bribery scandal: four. NBC aired three: a January 15 report by Myers, a July 20 report from Andrea Mitchell, and a Myers story on October 6, when the Duelfer report came out detailing the scam. ABC aired only one this year: from investigative reporter Brian Ross on April 21, the day the UN announced its own internal probe into the scandal. But we found CBS has not aired a single story on the scandal, even when using a list of different search terms in the Nexis search engine trying to find one. Maybe they were hip-deep in phony documents.
Why isn't this a major scandal for the major networks? Despite the nine ongoing probes, the networks would rather chase anti-Bush angles. ABC, CBS, and NBC have combined for more than 75 stories on George W. Bush's National Guard Service, more than 50 stories on "skyrocketing" gasoline prices, and hundreds on prison abuse at Abu Ghraib. All year, Kerry has touted a greater UN and European role in Iraq. Now, those players look like what liberals called "the coalition of the bribed." And the anchormen are keeping quiet. More on the media apathy here.
I'll go out on a limb and state that if you did a search on Canadian media outlets, the ratios would be similar.
But I disagree with Tim Graham on one point - this is not apathy. It's journalistic malpractice. And for once I'd like to see some of those who lurk in the "mainstream media" through these blog discussions (yes, your ip's turn up in our logs) screw up the courage to actually respond in the comments, and attempt to justify why you continue to treat us, the consumers, with such utterly transparent professional contempt.
(Crossposted to the Shotgun.)
Karma
A defnition:
Karma -from the root kri, "to do"- is the means by which you become the architect of your own destiny. The word karma literally means deed, but implies the entire cycle of cause and its effects. According to the law of karma, every human action -in thought, word, or deed-inevitably leads to results or consequences, good or bad, depending upon the quality of the action.
Hmmmm... I was actually hoping for instructions that were a little more specific.
Tommy Douglas, Not Dead Enough
 | 2004 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tommy Douglas. |
And the 186th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, 134th of Lenin and the 78th anniversary of Castro's birth.
Just so we're all on the same page.
October 19, 2004
Last Known Whereabouts
Gregory Djerejian at Belgravia Dispatch goes on the search for Bin Laden.
Folks, bottom line: we have to go all the way back to December 26th 2001 to see a video of UBL that really seems to get close to passing a smell test evidencing that's he actually, you know, alive in it (and he didn't look too smashing in this one either).
And if not dead, well, there's a certain inconsistancy to his "appearances".
Via Instapundit.
The Law Of The Many
A Command Post contributor gives a speech to AP managing editors. A must read for traditional journalists, as well as anyone else new to the blogging phenomenon.
Melange à Trois
Scientists seek to create 'three-parent' babies
What on Earth for, you may ask?
The aim is ultimately to prevent children from inheriting genetic diseases caused by mutations in DNA housed by their mitochondria - components of cells which produce energy.
In other words, because they can.
The procedure would involve fertilising a woman's egg by in-vitro fertilisation outside the body and transplanting the fertilised nucleus to an egg from another woman which has had its nucleus removed.Any child born following implantation of such an embryo would have cells containing a nucleus with genes from both parents, and mitochondria from a woman other than their mother.
Normally, mitochondria are inherited from the mother via the egg. Mitochondrial mutations are more prevalent in older women, so using a young woman as the egg cytoplasm donor would reduce the risk of inheriting mitochondrial diseases.
A reproductive technology that humanity desperately needs.
Bring Home the Canadian Bacon
Kerry Pushes Plan to Re-Import Canadian Bacon
"I have a plan to get every American hooked on Canadian bacon," said Mr. Kerry during a campaign stop in Jacksonville, Oregon. "All we need to do is get American farmers to export their hogs to Canada, where the government could impose price controls, then we re-import the processed Canadian bacon to the United States at prices lower than those available here on ordinary bacon."
From The Folks Who Brought You AIRPLANE!
 |
In the ad, as a bomb squad tries to defuse a bomb, the narrator delivers the key message:
THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH A LITTLE INDECISION . . . AS LONG AS YOUR JOB DOESN'T INVOLVE ANY RESPONSIBILITY. |
Grapes Is In
A successful operation by the "Pyjamahadeen" - Don Cherry has made the top ten in CBC's "Greatest Canadians" list. Kevin Libin;
Those of you who have been following the Shotgun for a while might remember that the Meatriarchy campaigned to get all of us to vote for Cherry who, at the time, looked as though he was about to get fired from CBC following last hockey season's dustup over frenchmen and hockey visors. As a Canadian who practices free speech and political incorrectness, Grapes was the perfect foil for the CBC's exercise in national values standardization.I suspect the nod to Cherry came directly as a result of the tireless on-line campaigning of one of our favourite bloggers. So congratulations to the Meatriarchy. (And shame on the CBC for not knowing (as the Meatriarchy also notes) that Alexander Graham Bell was not a Canadian, but a Scot who only spent a few years here, as well as living in the U.S. and the U.K.)
| Heh. Vote early - and vote often!. |  |
update - Garth Woolsey at The Star is not amused. Even better.
All The News That's Fit To Make Up
Via Wizbang - is it the New York Times' turn to fabricate quotes?
The reporter in question, Ron Suskind, did not attend the event he got the quote from. Further, it was not televised, it was a private event and there were no transcripts available. Yet he reports the quote as fact.Suskind does not explain how he got the controversial quote so accurate but does say about an earlier quote "According to notes provided to me, and according to several guests at the lunch who agreed to speak..."
So Suskind got "notes provided to him" and that was good enough to run such an important quote. I hope Bill Burkett was not the source. Is this what passes for reporting at the Times today?
The Kerry/Edwards/NYTimes campaign has decided they can't convince voters with ringing endorsements so they'll scare old people to death.
For their part, the Bush campaign is denying the quote and some even claimed Suskind made the quote up from whole cloth. In the end, it is of little use, the media is running wild with the story, facts be damned.
--Oh, and who is Ron Suskind that the New York Times is having write a 10 (web) page story on Bush just days before the election? He is the author of "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill.''"
Hey, if it's good enough for the Associated Press...
Snow
Unfortunately, my digital camera broke a couple of weeks ago, and the one I bought on Ebay hasn't arrived yet, so I've no photos. I didn't get out of Rapid City until 4 pm yesterday, and made it as far as Williston, ND. Awoke to freezing rain, and it went downhill from there. Hiway 85 to the border was glaze ice much of the way, and Regina to Delisle was a combination of ice and snowpack, complete with finger drifts. There's 8" of wet snow in my yard and more snow forecast for tonight.
Blech.
October 18, 2004
Martin Luther Emery
Marijuana activist Marc Emery was released from jail today. He was a guest on John Gormley Live, where he compared the "persecution" of his "culture" by "Europeans" to the civil rights movement, slavery and the Holocaust.
"We've arrested more people for marijuana since 1960 than Stalin sent to the gulags."
That ladies and gentlemen, is your brain on drugs. (Emery is also of the opinion that the climate in Saskatchewan was too harsh for white men and that Europeans should have left it to the Indians and sought more "civilized" places to live. Like Vancouver's Hastings Street, I presume.)
By and large, I'm ambivalent towards the decriminalization of marijuana, but I have enough past experience with the effects to know that I don't want pot smokers behind the wheel, taking care of children or responsible for heavy machinery - and until there is a roadside test for pot intoxication, arresting people for possession is just fine with me.
What I'm not ambivalent towards are those who choose civil disobedience to make a political point, who mewl like babies when they suffer the anticipated legal consequences. In the case of the self-described "Prince of Pot", he really needs to be treated to the reality of the Soviet gulag to get a better understanding of how obscene his pathetic, self-pitying comparisons were.
My advice to the advocates of decrimilization is to dump this loser, and fast. At best, his logic is convoluted - at worst, one suspects he's suffered brain damage It may be a simple chicken-egg question - perhaps his stupidity predated his marijuana use. It's concievable that Mr.Emery was destined to be as dense as a soggy post from the day he first drew breath - but whatever the case may be, inhalation of marijuana has not enhanced his mental capacities.
October 17, 2004
Poll Manipulation?
Den Beste is back, and he's spotted something odd in poll results in the past few weeks.
In my opinion, the polls were being deliberately gimmicked, in hopes of helping Kerry. In early August it looks as if there was an attempt to engineer a "post-convention bounce", but it failed and was abandoned after about two weeks. But I'm not absolutely certain about that.The data for September, however, is clearly an anomaly. The data is much too consistent. Compare the amount of jitter present before September to the data during that month. There's no period before that of comparable length where the data was so stable.
The September data is also drastically outside of previous trends, with distinct stairsteps both at the beginning and at the end. And the data before the anomaly and after it for both Kerry and Bush matches the long term trendlines.
If I saw something like that in scientific or engineering data, I'd be asking a lot of very tough questions. My first suspicion would be that the test equipment was broken, but in the case of opinion polls there is no such thing. My second suspicion would be fraud.
In September, I think there was a deliberate attempt to depress Kerry's numbers, so as to set up an "October comeback". Of course, the goal was to engineer a bandwagon.
Via Powerline where there is oodles of other good stuff.
Watching CNN Inside Politics at the moment, Bill Schneider busy spinning an overwhelmingly postive Bush poll of the military into [paraphrasing] "just something the military is expected to do, but they really don't agree with the way the war is being fought".
Oh, and they're against the draft, too. We also learned that George Bush and John Kerry are against the draft, college students are against the draft, middle class Americans are against the draft, the elderly are against the draft, political analysts are against the draft, Europeans are against the draft and a poll of chimpanzees trained in sign language also indicated they are firmly against the draft get CoCo banana.
Thune Vs Dashle
Judging by the saturation level of Thune and Daschle ads here in South Dakota, things are pretty competitive. Amusingly, Dashle advertising steers way clear of criticizing Bush (one even goes so far as to align Dashle with the president) while some of the Thune ads use footage of Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Daschle doing just that.
Apparently, everyone running for the South Dakota senate seat is a Republican.
October 15, 2004
Stem Sell
Charles Krauthammer;
After the second presidential debate, in which John Kerry used the word "plan" 24 times, I said on television that Kerry has a plan for everything except curing psoriasis. I should have known there is no parodying Kerry's pandering. It turned out days later that the Kerry campaign has a plan -- nay, a promise -- to cure paralysis. What is the plan? Vote for Kerry.This is John Edwards on Monday at a rally in Newton, Iowa: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."
Mr. Krauthammer proceeds to take young John Edwards out to the woodshed. Go read it all, if for no other reason than to find out the truth about the "ban" on stem cell research and the hype surrounding the issue.
October 14, 2004
Warren Kinsella, Insufferable Twit
The insufferable Mr. Kinsella pulled the same stunt when he was a "guest" on a talk radio show in Saskatchewan last year after the retirement of Jean Chretien. A caller raised the fact that Chretien's daughter was married to the son of Paul Desmarais (of Bombardier and Power Corporation fame), and was promptly interrupted by Mr.Kinsella who threatened to sue both the station and the caller.
Once a Librano always a Librano.
Oct.19 update and more links here.
Southbound, Again
Heading out tomorrow for Rapid City dog shows, so blogging will be light until I get home.
October 13, 2004
"Insurgents" Going Wobbly?
James Joyner highlights this WaPo report:
Local insurgents in the city of Fallujah are turning against the foreign fighters who have been their allies in the rebellion that has held the U.S. military at bay in parts of Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland, according to Fallujah residents, insurgent leaders and Iraqi and U.S. officials. Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. The disputes have spilled over into harsh words and sporadic violence, with Fallujans killing at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses. "If the Arabs will not leave willingly, we will make them leave by force," said Jamal Adnan, a taxi driver who left his house in Fallujah's Shurta neighborhood a month ago after the house next door was bombed by U.S. aircraft targeting foreign insurgents.
(Instapundit has more.)
Belmont Club looks at the murder of Ken Bigley and the still stubborn reluctance of Western media to accept that we are at war.
A bit of serious, but necessary, reading. Grab a coffee and get to it.
Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge
An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service.
The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.[...]
The "board of officers" review reported in the Claytor document is even more extraordinary because it came about "by direction of the President." No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the president. The president at that time was James Carter. This adds another twist to the story of Mr. Kerry's hidden military records.
[...]
There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr. Kerry's medals were reissued.
Why is this interesting? (Apart from the fact that Kerry has made his Vietnam service a central argument for his fitness as commander in chief). It's interesting because the questions surrounding Kerry's military record and the discrepencies in the documents provided, have been out there for some months now, and with the exception of Thomas Lipscomb's reporting, has remained completely uninvestigated. The same media outlets that have searched under every rock and in every crevice for evidence to support DNC Terry McAuliffe's accusations that George Bush was "AWOL" from his guard service seem unconcerned that Kerry is refusing to release his military records - an astonishing "oversight", considering that the Swift Boat Veterans' book "Unfit For Command" led the best seller lists for weeks.
October 12, 2004
Iraq: Bastard Child
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state;
Now, in light of the post-war chaos, Cardinal Sodano has announced a newly hawkish line on Iraq from Rome. "The child has been born," he declared recently on behalf of the Vatican. "It may be illegitimate, but it's here, and it must be reared and educated."
Despite the backhanded nature of his statements, this is significant.
October 11, 2004
HMCS Chicoutimi Safe
Thanks to a tip from John MacLeod, a Shotgun reader, this detailed report on the rescue of HMCS Chicoutimi. He points out;
There were four surface vessels, plus twelve (12) Royal Navy and UK Helicopters assigned,for the most part EH101 "Merlin" aircraft. The Canadian Forces, through no fault could not launch 12 helicopters for an operation in one specific area The EH101 "Merlin" was the aircraft chosen by the Mulroney Government in 1993.
(And cancelled by Chretien.)
The Canadian forces website reports Petty Officer 2nd class Denis Lafleur, 41, and and Master Seaman Archibald MacMaster, 41, are in stable condition and continue to improve. There's also a small photo gallery.
update - Toronto Star has a hair-raising article on the ordeal.
More From NYT Magazine
"Can we get any of my water?" he asked Stephanie Cutter, his communications director, who dutifully scurried from the room. I asked Kerry, out of sheer curiosity, what he didn't like about Evian."I hate that stuff," Kerry explained to me. "They pack it full of minerals."
"What kind of water do you drink?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"Plain old American water," he said.
"You mean tap water?"
"No ... There are all kinds of waters," he said finally. Pause. "Saratoga Spring. ... Sometimes I drink tap water," he added.
Nuance, Expanded
"I voted for the 87 Billion before I voted against it" is about to be officially retired. John Kerry has handed the Bush campaign something better. His "nuance" has morphed into "nuisance".
From New York Times magazine:
"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,"
And if the choice of the word "nuisance" wasn't bad enough -
"As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."
That's right - finding out that your children are being held hostage in a school rigged with explosives is right up there with opening your telephone book and finding suggestive escort agency ads.
Volokh examines this bizarre analogy more thoroughly.
Wretchard sums it up.
Bai's article reminds me of one of those products which are described on the packaging as being a new space age, high-technology, portable illumination aid which on closer inspection turns out to be a flashlight. When the newfangled description of terrorism as a "blended threat" is subtracted, the entire program consists of the policies of the late 1990s. Bilateral talks with North Korea. Oslo. G-8. The United Nations. Warrants of arrest. Extradition requests. Not a single new element in the entire package, except the fancy rationale. There is nothing wrong with that, any more than there is anything objectionable about a flashlight, but a more candid characterization of Kerry's proposals is not a voyage into uncharted waters so much as return to the world of September 10; in Kerry's words "back to the place we were". It has the virtue of producing known results, and suffers only from the defect that those results do not include being able to prevent massive attacks on the American mainland.
October 10, 2004
Playing Chicken With The Wrong Opposition
Martin takes the measure of a minority
Crises are always revealing. Last week's brush with the brink and flirtation with defeat for the government displayed the strengths and weaknesses of the party leaders, and provided some fascinating insights into how they operate.Martin, as he did at the health-care talks with the premiers, started with an opening position that conceded very little to the opposition parties' agendas, apparently assuming that they were bluffing. When it became clear that they weren't, there was a frantic burst of energy and improvisation: late- night emergency strategy meetings of senior cabinet ministers, phone calls to premiers to mobilize them against the opposition, and a final minutes-from-the-edge negotiation.
When a deal was struck, Martin's strategists were beaming with self-congratulation, as they did after the election and the health-care meeting. The Martin Method had worked again. Sort of.But the near-miss occurred because the Liberals had under-consulted and under-estimated the opposition, blithely assuming that they would not dare force a confrontation so early. Wrong.
Stephen Harper emerged stronger, playing his cards well. He built a strong relationship with Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe, and helped push for a key concession, telling Martin that he didn't want his government to fall over the phraseology of a sub-amendment.
Duceppe was also strengthened by the last-minute deal that averted the government's defeat. ) He had shrewdly set the bar very low, seeking changes to the Speech from the Throne based on what Quebec Premier Jean Charest wants, not a sovereignty agenda, and on priorities he stated in June. He proved to Harper that he could be trusted; his years of experience as a union negotiator showed.
But the NDP's Jack Layton lost ground and lost face. He appeared desperate to keep the Liberals in power, at almost any price. He showed his fellow-opposition leaders that he can't be relied on in a common front to extract concessions from the government, even when he has written the concessions himself. He dealt himself out of the play, revealed his weakness, and is now taken less seriously by all three of his fellow party leaders.
October 9, 2004
Measuring Success
With the voting over in the first presidential election in the history of Afghanistan, the media is virtually unanimous in declaring failure. Google News search results tell the story.
Results 1 - 10 of about 720 for afghan election fraud.
Jeff Jarvis is confused and dismayed at the negativity. One can only conclude he's been hiding under a rock for the past three years.
So I tried a few others....
Your search - "Afghan voters killed in blast" - did not match any documents.
Your search - Afghan "polling station blast" - did not match any documents.
Your search - Afghan "polling station violence" - did not match any documents.
Reuters couldn't even dig one up, though they did record a possible interception.
Results 1 - 1 of about 1 for afghan voters-killed. (0.10 seconds)
Bloomberg.com:
Afghans turned out in ``massive'' numbers for the nation's first direct presidential election, a United Nations spokesman said.``We don't have numbers have yet, but there was a massive amount of voters and a great deal of enthusiasm,'' Manoel de Almeida e Silva said by telephone from Kabul, the Afghan capital. A preliminary count may be ready within two days, and a total count may take up to three weeks, he said.
[...]There were no reports of voters killed or injured, U.S. Maj. Scott Nelson, spokesman for the Combined Forces Command, said by telephone from Kabul. There was a report of an ambush in Uruzgan province by suspected Taliban militants that left three police officers dead, he said.
I call that a success. And so would the New York Times, WaPo, the LA Tmes and every other major media outlet in North America had it happened with a Democrat in the White House. Get with the program, Jeff!
John Howard Wins 4th Term
A victory for the coalition of the bribed and coerced. Anti-war Labor party leader Mark Latham awarded consolation meat tray.
Under Tow
Carrolyn Parrish;
"We are no longer being towed by the coalition of the idiots." the Liberal legislator told a small group of demonstrators. "Bastards..."
Cranky Canadian Press
Globe And Mail, Alan Freeman: "Once again last night, U.S. President George W. Bush grimaced and looked irritated when he faced tough questions about the war in Iraq and the record of his four years in office.
Winnipeg Sun, Charles Adler "It gives some of us the impression that last night was the president's eleventh hour. And his time may be up."
Toronto Star, Tim Harper " He was seen winking at somebody in the audience twice, raising his eyebrows in mock exasperation another time and tapping his left foot on the ground as he sat on his stool, a mannerism which has betrayed impatience in the U.S. president in the past."
The European rags are ceding the debate to Bush. The downright cranky nature of Canadian coverage this morning means they are, too.
Can Charlie Sit Down This Morning?
Sorry about that big cowboy bootprint on your ass, Charlie...
GIBSON: Mr. President, let's extend for a minute...
BUSH: Let me just - I've got to answer this.
GIBSON: Exactly. And with Reservists being held on duty...
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: Let me answer what he just said, about around the world.
GIBSON: Well, I want to get into the issue of the back-door draft...
BUSH: You tell Tony Blair we're going alone. Tell Tony Blair we're going alone. Tell Silvio Berlusconi we're going alone. Tell Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland we're going alone. There are 30 countries there. It denigrates an alliance to say we're going alone, to discount their sacrifices. You cannot lead an alliance if you say, you know, you're going alone. And people listen. They're sacrificing with us.
GIBSON: Senator?
Heh.
This was the first debate I watched - the other two I listened to on radio. The person I watched with is probably poltiically somewhat to the left of myself - (yes, I know, not a difficult achievement) and it was pretty clear that he thought Bush had won.
James Joyner liveblogged.
As a Canadian, the response Bush gave on lowering health care costs by relying on Canadian imported drugs was badly explained - though the "safety" response might play well with a US audience, it sounded flat out goofy from this side of the border. The real problem with importing Canadian drugs is that our prices are contained legislatively. US drug companies tolerate the situation because our share of the market is relatively small. The idea that they would agree to having the bulk of their US profits slashed by an export-import run through Canada is naive. They can stop exporting any time they like.
And was James Varner a Rove operative or just a guy with a mean streak a mile wide?
"Senator Kerry, would you be willing to look directly into the camera and, using simple and unequivocal language, give the American people your solemn pledge ..."
October 8, 2004
"What I Really Said About Iraq"
Paul Bremer has an op-ed in the New York Times today. I believe registration is required, so I"m going to quote generously.
In recent days, attention has been focused on some remarks I've made about Iraq. The coverage of these remarks has elicited far more heat than light, so I believe it's important to put my remarks in the correct context.In my speeches, I have said that the United States paid a price for not stopping the looting in Iraq in the immediate aftermath of major combat operations and that we did not have enough troops on the ground to accomplish that task. The press and critics of the war have seized on these remarks in an effort to undermine President Bush's Iraq policy.
[...]
The press has been curiously reluctant to report my constant public support for the president's strategy in Iraq and his policies to fight terrorism. I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush.The president was right when he concluded that Saddam Hussein was a menace who needed to be removed from power. He understands that our enemies are not confined to Al Qaeda, and certainly not just to Osama bin Laden, who is probably trapped in his hide-out in Afghanistan. As the bipartisan 9/11 commission reported, there were contacts between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime going back a decade. We will win the war against global terror only by staying on the offensive and confronting terrorists and state sponsors of terror - wherever they are. Right now, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Qaeda ally, is a dangerous threat. He is in Iraq.
President Bush has said that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. He is right. Mr. Zarqawi's stated goal is to kill Americans, set off a sectarian war in Iraq and defeat democracy there. He is our enemy.
[...]
Mr. Kerry is free to quote my comments about Iraq. But for the sake of honesty he should also point out that I have repeatedly said, including in all my speeches in recent weeks, that President Bush made a correct and courageous decision to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein's brutality, and that the president is correct to see the war in Iraq as a central front in the war on terrorism.
A year and a half ago, President Bush asked me to come to the Oval Office to discuss my going to Iraq to head the coalition authority. He asked me bluntly, "Why would you want to leave private life and take on such a difficult, dangerous and probably thankless job?" Without hesitation, I answered, "Because I believe in your vision for Iraq and would be honored to help you make it a reality." Today America and the coalition are making steady progress toward that vision.
Don't expect any of it to be quoted on the nightly news.
Technical Issues?
I'm having problems getting my site to load properly in Opera today (the sidebar, blogroll, etc won't load at all), and am trying to figure out if the issue is local, or if it's a broader problem with MT. It seems fine in Mozilla. I run Linux, so I have no access to Explorer. If anyone else is encountering problems, post a comment or send me an email at kate@the. link.ca
Zero Tier Health Care, Updated
Looks like someone took up my suggestion;
Southwest trying to hold on to health careCLIMAX - People in the southwest corner of the province say they will pay for health care alone if they have to.
They are upset that hours of service at the Border Health Centre in Climax are going to be cut next month.
Nancy Kirk, mayor of Climax, says her area is home to oil and gas workers, as well as a large manufacturing plant. Kirk says accidents happen, and people need an emergency room around the clock.
"We're not really asking for a lot. We know we're a health centre. We know we don't probably need a full-fledged acute care facility here. We need some solutions as they have done in other parts of the province where people are isolated. We need some the solution to have some of our emergency needs met beyond the eight-hour day."
Kirk says a number of people in her area are willing to spend local tax dollars on extending the health centre's hours. Kirk estimates keeping open the emergency room would cost up to $300,000 dollars a year.
Good for them.
If First Nations are going to be permitted to establish private, for profit MRI services in the city of Saskatoon, with three major hospitals in a 10 mile radius, any argument to deny rural residents the right to find their own solutions in a "remote" region without a hospital or emergency care at all is going to require a intellectual contortionist.
That person, of course, would be Premier Lorne Calvert.
Canadian Brain Drain Continues
A foreign mercenary who apparently came from Canada has been killed while fighting Russian forces in Chechnya, the headquarters of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus told the RIA-Novosti news agency on Friday."The documents found on the killed African-American testify to the fact that he had arrived from Canada," the agency's source said. The source noted, however, that the authenticity of these documents was yet to be verified.
"At present we are translating and checking the numerous visas in his passport. The expertise to check their authenticity will be held in the nearest future," the HQ source said.
Official spokesman of the North Caucasus HQ, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, said that the killed African-American was an expert in explosives and that he had arrived in Chechnya to replace Algerian fighter Abu Muskhab who was recently taken prisoner by Russian troops. (Kamal Burrakhlia, AKA Abu Muskhab was detained by Russia's FSB in Chechnya on September 17, 2004. Before arriving in Chechnya in 2001, the mercenary had lived in Great Britain for almost 10 years.)
"The mercenary and three Chechen gunmen who accompanied him were killed on Thursday near the village of Niki-Khita in the Kurchaloi District of Chechnya," Shabalkin said. The gunmen belonged to a group headed by the warlord Avdorkhanov who is under the immediate command of Aslan Maskhadov, he added.
A grenade launcher, a machine gun and two assault rifles were found on the killed fighters, the spokesman said.
Talkies
Oh, Theresa - nicely done.
Writing for the National Post, J. Kelly Nestruck, -- that's "J." Kelly, not just "Kelly" -- has written an article about bloggers and the blogosphere. JKelly's article is entitled "Why the revolution won't be blogged" and subtitled "Bloggers talk about their importance, but it's just talk."[...]
JKelly's own blog, On the Fence can be found here. Read it, especially if you just can't get enough of reporters talking about what events they're covering and putting down their colleagues. Maybe that doesn't matter, though, given that he acknowledges his readers don't all read the National Post. Tsk. Tsk. After reading his blog, I, myself, doubt that he's doing much to improve NP readership, either, especially given that he seems to double-dip -- writing about a topic on his blog and then spinning that yarn into a news article later. Yawn.
In response to the reaction his piece generated (as well as a reply in the Heart of Canada link above), he does attempt to clarify his thoughts with these obvious points, and frankly, I'd be surprised if the majority of media critic - news junkie bloggers would disagree with them.
But, yes, as someone writes in the comment to the post below, I guess I am arguing against a position that is not widely held. How many bloggers actually believe that it's "new media vs. old media"? Most smart ones recognize the symbiotic relationship between the two.
The question is, why does he think it had to be said at all, if he's as familiar with the blogosphere as he purports to be?
Some, unaware that I was involved in bloggage before I started at the Post, have seen the article as another mainstream journalist scared for his job thing. (If I am, trust me, it's not because of bloggers.) I guess what I wanted to say, and only really did at the end of the article, is that blogs aren't hurting the "old media," but actually helping it become better. The New York Times, for instance, has improved since Jayson Blair. Maybe Dan Rather will survive Memogate, maybe he won't; CBS News, however, will work really hard to restore its reputation.
Nobody that I'm aware of is seriously setting out to replace old media - it's not a primal "us vs them" showdown. Most are happy enough to simply snap at their heels, and in the final analysis - improvement in the quality of reporting is the goal. Sifting through information on current events is a lot of work - I'd rather someone else did it for me. It's what they're paid to do, after all. I didn't rip into David Kirton today because I seek to steal his audience - I ripped into him because I'm tired of being treated like an absolute idiot who needs to be told what to think about the news, as though I will swallow it whole without tasting (and without Google).
I'm tired of searching for transcripts to verify that the quotes extracted aren't misrepresented. I'm tired of double standards and having actual coverage of events interrupted by some self-important jerk with a microphone who interprets it for me, through the lens of an opponant's view.
So, J. Kelly - it's not hard to keep people like me off your back - just strive to represent the facts as they become known, and present them in their honest context. Do bona-fide followup and correct with the enthusiasm with which you reveal.
And, stop playing the gotcha game. You probably aren't Bob Woodward and it's probably not Watergate. Identify opinion for what it is, and whose it is. Don't try to recreate history or subject it to an arbitrary 48 month cut off.
I'm not your competitor - I'm the consumer. I ask simply as that you remember your role and respect mine - you report, I decide - it's not just a cute slogan.
So, yeah, don't for a minute think that things have changed all that much over the past nine months. Blogs are fun, blogs are great, I love blogs. But there are people out there saying that blogs are to the 2004 presidential race what television was to the 1960 campaign. (Sidenote: I've never really bought into that whole "TV won the election for JFK" myth, personally.) The fact is that blogs are still only visited by a small segment of the voting public. Stories like Rathergate would have never hit if it wasn't for the back- up of the old media.
And there you go again. Rathergate would have never hit if it wasn't for the back-up of Drudge.
Stories like Rathergate would never have broken in the first place if it were up to the old media. Old media (the NYT and Boston Globe, for example) tried very hard to ignore, then refute it.
Perhaps he's right and bloggers have really hit their peak as an influence over public opinion. Perhaps it's true that the best that the blogosphere can aspire to is an esoteric, exotic niche, and that it will never come within a sniff of the audience share enjoyed by old media (though there are plenty of bloggers who have higher daily readership than some mid-sized city newspapers who put the lie to that).
TZ has words of encouragement, too.
Anyhow, Kellygreen can just stop whining. The internet will never replace print journalism. After all, you can't line a birdcage with computer monitors.
On the other hand, as I write this, there's an old quote that persists in tapping me on the shoulder;
"Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo." - Mary PIckford |  |
This item is tantalizing: |
Keep a watch on Powerline, as they are continuing to post updates as they read the report.
Lt. Chris Saunders
Left this morning around 7 for Calgary, and just got home an hour ago - 12 hours on the road, plus dicking around taking paperwork to customs, etc. Hence, a very quiet blogging day.
I used up most of my drive home raging at Paul Martin for the military penny pinching that has now cost a Canadian submariner his life. (*see note below)
"...He gave his life saving his country, and we pay him our profound respects and his family our deepest condolences."
No, Mr. Martin, you insipid, unthinking, flaccid little man - he didn't. He died trying to save his own life and that of his crewmates, because your government devoted more skill and effort to setting up secret funds to funnel money to Liberal ad agencies than it did ensuring that our military was provided with dependable, current equipment and supplies.
You converted our once proud armed forces into an international joke that was never funny. And once again, it's turned tragic.
May you sleep as restlessly tonight as are the stranded men in the North Atlantic.
Update Oct. 7 - a second sailor is now in critical condiiton
[*Something strange has gone on at that link. The google cache displayed the quote above - yet it does not appear in the text of the report. Airbrushing by the National Post? CNN has it.]
October 6, 2004
Debate Distilled
The difference between the two: Dick Cheney could be President.
That's all that matters, in the final analysis. James Joyner has a lengthier one and a gazillion trackbacks for the insomniac.
A truck driver calls in to talk radio's Jerry Doyle:
"Edwards reminds me of Tattoo on Fantasy Island... up in the tower ...calling out "da plan, da plan" and not much else ... which is not to say that Kerry is Ricardo Montalban."
Ouch, as they say.
October 5, 2004
Canadian Sub In Trouble
As details begin to trickle in about the emergency in the North Atlantic, people all over the world are asking themselves the same question - Canada has a submarine?
backdate: It's not a torpedo malfunction.
Volcano Cam
Just in case you haven't noticed, there's a big poof of smoke there at the moment.
BIG POOF.
update - in case you missed it, right click on the thumbnail to get the full size version
The Nuclear Apprentice, Episode 3
John Kerry: See? Wasn't that easy? We negotiated like reasonable adults, gave you nuclear fuel and now you have clean electricity.Iran: We're forever indebted.
John Kerry: Well, I'll be going. I'll just need that spent fuel to take back with me.
Iran: Spent fuel?
John Kerry: The spent fuel you promised to give back under the terms of our agreement...
Iran: ...
John Kerry: Don't you know who you're talking to?
Iran: Oh ... perhaps you have us confused with a country without nuclear arms?
John Kerry: You lied!!
Iran: Nuance.
John Kerry: Lies!
Iran: A compromise, then. Stop jumping up and down.
Iran: Now, have a nice day and don't be missing that plane.
Iran: And say hello to that stupid fuck Jimmy for us, would you?
Team America: World Police
When a movie review can make you laugh out loud....
Even as we speak, several prominent Hollywood actors may be calling their lawyers to check on slander laws. GLAAD is certainly drafting a press release condemning the film, and North Korean madman Kim Jong II may have a case as well.[...]
"Team America" is certainly destined to be a cult classic, but it may have a rocky road getting to that status. Watching the movie means being slack- jawed for its 90-minute running time.
When I saw it over the weekend, the only other person in the screening room kept looking around to make sure a) I was all right and b) that we were really seeing what we were seeing.
I'm going to be first in line for this one.
Seriously.
Beyond The Global Test
It's beginning to stick. John Kerry is now redefining what he meant by "the global test".
"But I can do a better job of protecting America's security because the test that I was talking about was a test of legitimacy, not just in the globe, but elsewhere."All that, and new funding for SETI!
via Hugh Hewitt
Home Improvement
The lengthy gap between posts today represents the time I spent priming and painting the exterior door and window trim on my house. I actually finished the whole thing in one afternoon, second floor included.
Except, I'm not sure about the colour. I wanted something softer than the deep red-toned brown fascia that wouldn't clash with the cream siding. I hated the dark brown trim that had been on the house when I bought it, so I selected a warm, softer, mid-toned brown, and co-ordinated it from thirty miles away ... by memory.
Now that it's all finished, I'm not entirely certain it's working, chromatically speaking. The colour is closer to a peachy terra cotta.
Whatever. I've decided to give it a few years before passing judgement.
See Mike Fisk.
Michael Totten's latest fisking rates a degree of difficulty somewhere between setting a mousetrap and kicking a little girl off a tricycle as she wobbles by.
A rude, stupid, mouthy little girl with an annoying accent. Shot full of botox.
On a hand-made tricycle with custom Cyfac racing frame and powdercoated spokes.
That cost $6500 Euros.
PUNT.
October 4, 2004
The Nuclear Apprentice
Next Episode: "Attempts to sell Paris Hilton videos to Leavenworth inmates unsuccessful."
October 3, 2004
National Post Downsizes
Sept. 30: For Immediate Release:
"In an effort to broaden the subscriber base, the National Post has made the difficult decision to downsize the intelligence quotient at the newspaper.While the addition of content from Sheila Copps was a step in the right direction, the Post has realized that our goals would not be attainable without making painful, but necessary cuts. We regret any disappointment this may cause with our dedicated readership, but we are confident that the changes will produce the shorter words and larger photographs that appeal to today's modern thinkers."
October 2, 2004
Style Weapons
I didn't hear the full debate - I caught bits and pieces over the radio via am border stations, by virtue of a very cold night and the extended wavelength it grants. Bits and pieces, because the reception was uneven, switching back and forth between stations (in my truck, then at home) as the signal waxed and waned.
Because I had no visuals to distract from the actual content, I didn't conclude that Kerry had won the debate. I didn't know it was a game, so I didn't keep score. I was listening - not watching facial expressions, or counting the seconds of pause or wondering what was in the notes I didn't know Kerry was writing. I was just listening to the words.
Little of what I heard surprised me. I've been following the candidates too closely over the past couple of months for that. I heard portions from both that I knew were scripted, framed with the expected "talking points". It was all relatively predictable.
Except for this. I was in the truck, and I remember sitting up straight in my seat and looking at the radio in disbelief. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Hugh Hewitt can't believe it either and he's inviting further commentary. And like me, he's not so sure that Kerry won this debate. No one is talking at all about the content of Bush's remarks. It's all about delivery. Kerry had "better style". Smooth and polished. "On the offensive".
Now that a couple of days have passed, the discussion is moving to the details of Kerry's statements, the contradictions and factual errors - the things I noticed at the time because reception was sketchy and I was trying hard to listen. The questions are coming from unfamiliar and usually friendly places.
Style mattered in the post Cold War decades, when Clinton debated Bush, when Dole debated Clinton. Smooth delivery and facial expression and reaction mattered when Bush debated Gore (*sigh*). Style got you before the camera, a night in the Lincoln bedroom, invited to the important parties. Average Americans in peacetime focused on fashion, on affluence, on upward mobility, and when those things are important, style is important.
Then, Islamic terrorists flew three commercial jets into the heart of the free world. And they scored style points, huge style points, style points to end all style points.... even if the actual substance of the attack boiled down to taking advantage of a few sleepy security screeners and an uncomprehending crew. They framed their argument in spectacular, riveting, technicolor style. Wow. People sat up and paid attention. It was "just like a movie".
Yet, even before the morning ended, the substantive weakness was realized. Without camera coverage, or eloquence, or focus groups to poll, the last intended victims - ordinary citizens - interrupted the message, ovewhelmed what little substance there was, and slammed it into the dirt in a field in Pennsylvania. The era of "style over substance" felt the impact.
John Kerry didn't.
"the United States is pursuing a new set of nuclear weapons. It doesn't make sense."
Nuclear weapons are substance. They may represent the very epitome of substance. No one has ever had to debate the finality and deadly effectiveness of a nuclear weapon to enhance its military authority.
Caught in the tortured convolution of his logic centers, Kerry doesn't comprehend this.
"You talk about mixed messages."
Nuclear weapons as "messages"?
John Kerry would be commander in chief of the most powerful military the world has ever known. He will defend his nation with resolve and dedicate himself to winning the war against Islamic terrorism.
"We're telling other people, "You can't have nuclear weapons," but we're pursuing a new nuclear weapon..."
He pledges that he will support the military with all the resources required to get the job done. He has the experience, has the means, he has the will to achieve victory.
" that we might even contemplate using".
Just let him be very clear with the enemies of the United States about one important principle - that there are some weapons that the President only keeps around for show.
Perfection
Hours before the game, he approached a ticket booth. "Is this the House of Ruth?" he asked.
"This is it.”
"This is it, just like that? This is her house?"
"His," the ticket seller said.
"His?" Roger asked.
"His."
"Ruth was a woman," Roger stated.
"Ruth was a Babe, but he wasn't no woman."
"That's not true," Roger said, "but it doesn't matter. I've come to save the Yenkiss."
Silvio Berlusconi's Refrigerator Note
Stuff for today
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Eve And Steve.
Not what you think this is about, either.
A few years ago, the paleoanthropologists got together with molecular geneticists and made a startling discovery - that all modern humans descend from a common female ancestor, who originated in Africa. They named her "Eve", which, while not entirely original, was clever and easy to remember. (Though I wish I were a fly on the wall when the wailing began that the choice of this particular name might dovetail a little too conveniently with the competing theory in Genesis - but I digress...)
The discovery was based upon studies of mitochondrial dna - located outside the cell nucleus and inherited only from one's mother. A more thorough discussion of mitochondrial dna and how it is used to track evolutionary branches is here. (Heh - check it out. I'm such a mind reader.)
Once the genetics geeks got their hands on mitochondrial dna they were hooked. In addition to finding "Eve", they went to work on a timeline showing when dogs emerged from wolves, and wolves from older versions of wolves and so forth. They've been using it to plot these evolutionary timelines for species divergence, crime solving, disease research ever since. It's a slick little tool.
Or it would be, if that part about "only inherited from the maternal ancestor line" were true.
For decades biologists have assumed that mitochondria - the cells' power stations - are inherited solely through the maternal line.Mitochondria in the sperm from the father were presumed to be destroyed immediately after conception, leaving behind only those from the mother. But Marianne Schwartz and John Vissing from the University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, have discovered that one of their patients inherited the majority of his mitochondria from his father.
[...]
The researchers think inheritance of paternal mitochondrial DNA is probably very rare. But the findings will have implications for a number of branches of biology. Evolutionary biologists often date the divergence of species by the differences in genetic sequences in mitochondrial DNA. Even if paternal DNA is inherited very rarely, it could invalidate many of their findings. It will also have implications for scientists investigating inherited metabolic diseases.
Damn. Well, that sucks, doesn't it?
But let's not let that get anyone down.. regroup, refocus and charge!
Using a computer model, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempted to trace back the most recent common ancestor using estimated patterns of migration throughout history.They calculated that the ancestor's location in eastern Asia allowed his or her descendants to spread to Europe, Asia, remote Pacific Islands and the Americas. Going back a few thousand years more, the researchers found a time when a large fraction of people in the world were the common ancestors of everybody alive today - while the rest were ancestors of no one alive. That date was 5,353BC, the team reports in Nature.
No word on whether or not they've named the lucky dude, but I'm guessing "Adam" is high on the list.
October 1, 2004
Sniping At Snipers
It was inevitable, I suppose. The Canadian Armed Forces has been infected by the loathing and envy of the country they represent.
Hailed as heroes in early 2002 by the U.S. military, the six Canadian marksmen were later given highly coveted Bronze Star medals - awards normally reserved for American soldiers who display extraordinary heroism during combat.
However, sources close to the investigation say the snipers were treated with much less than high regard when they returned to their Canadian bases, both in Afghanistan and back home.
"They were treated as outsiders and sort of turncoats," said one source who didn't want to be identified.
"At least three of these guys have since quit the army over their treatment."
Hat Tip - Damian Penny
Background here.
100K
It appears that the odometer on SDA is poised to turn over the 100,000 visitor mark sometime later today.
It seems like the right time to acknowledge and thank some people - picking a name at random from the sidebar one day at Scrappleface led me to Outside The Beltway. What better gateway to the blogosphere? It's safe to say that while there are many writers who have influenced the evolution of my blog, James Joyner is most responsible for inspiring it. So, if you must blame someone, blame James.
When I decided it was time to move my commenting addiction to my own bandwidth, Kevin Aylward agreed to do the tech work and, shortly afterwards, invited me to guest blog at the wildly popular Wizbang - at a time when few had even heard of a strangely named little blog from Saskatchewan (????).
And of course, the Commissar has been inexplicably generous in sending readers my way. Danka, Comrade. More naughty photos are on the way.
As have others too numerous to mention (but they're on the side bar), as well as the regular readers and commentors who pass along links and ideas.
I'm not sure how I'll celebrate. I do know though, that cherry ice cream is on the menu. Thanks, Jeff.
Busted
Paul, at Wizbang, catches an"expert" creating "proof" that the discredited TANG memos could have been produced on a typewriter, and has advice for him.
Here is a hint for the good Professor-- If you are going to forge documents DON'T LEAVE THE EVIDENCE on your webserver.And if you don't think that TH nailed him, feel free to download the PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT he was working on when he created the forgery.
Not only did he forge the document but he let the work in progress in an open web folder.
And Professor, if you are reading this- and I know someone will mail it to you, I have downloaded your entire website as evidence and I saved screen caps of it, so don't bother delete it. I also had an interesting phone call with the head of your department. You might give him a call.
The entire post is hilarious as the updates continue... the good professor trying to play catchup, editing his pages, adding disclaimers, while the blogosphere crushes him like a skunk on the dotted line....
update - Wizbang does a little digging and finds a familiar name attached to the photoshopping professor - CBS producer Mary Mapes