Here, A Nation Rose

Political Animal 3 Comments

James Joyner has a comprehensive roundup of blogosphere commentary about President Bush’s acceptance speech. I didn’t see it, but skimming through different sites, the reaction seems to be positive towards both the content and the delivery.
I would suggest that Canadian readers who missed it, read the transcript – particularly the final third or so. Exerpts;

America has done this kind of work before and there have always been doubters. In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to allied forces, a journalist wrote in the New York Times, “Germany is a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. [European] capitals are frightened. In every [military] headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed.” End quote. Maybe that same person’s still around, writing editorials.
Fortunately, we had a resolute president named Truman, who with the American people persevered, knowing that a new democracy at the center of Europe would lead to stability and peace. And because that generation of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world today.
[…]
The world saw that spirit three miles from here, when the people of this city faced peril together, and lifted a flag over the ruins, and defied the enemy with their courage. My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.

(Wizbang has a Transcript. )

RNC Links

Political Animal No Comments

MSNBC has the transcript up of the Miller bitch slapping of Chris Matthews interview on Hardball that’s getting so much attention on the blogosphere today.

MATTHEWS:� Senator, Senator, can I speak softly to you?� I would really like you to…
MILLER:� What?� No, no, no, because you won’t give me a chance to answer.� You ask these questions and then you just talk over what I am trying to answer, just like you did that woman the other day.�
MATTHEWS:� Well, Senator…
MILLER:� I don�t know why I even came on this program.�
MATTHEWS:� Well, I am glad you did.�
MATTHEWS:� Let me ask you this about John Kerry’s war record.�
MILLER:� Well, are you going to shut up after you ask me?�
MILLER:� Or are you going to give me a chance to answer it?�
MATTHEWS:� Yes, sir.�

And Wizbang has so much good, and original stuff blogging the RNC, you should just go pay the homepage a visit and read it all.
*sigh*
I’ll admit it.
I have Republican envy.

Winner’s Weiner

Dogblogging 2 Comments

NBC5.com reporting from the Nevada State Fair:


“The dachshund 50-foot sprint is an annual event. This year, there were so many entries that sponsors held a trial heat before the finals. Once they separated the dogs from the puppies, the real racing began.”

They’re off!

“The winner got $250 and a trip for two — which includes the wiener — to San Diego to compete in the national finals.”

I’d add something here, but sometimes, you just can’t improve on the original.

Dumb Luck Hypothesis

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Colby Cosh

The Dumb Luck Hypothesis, as it applies to Alberta, is terribly popular with people in Saskatchewan. They love to tell me, personally, how lucky Alberta has been to find itself sitting on top of all that oil. (They are generally unfazed when I explain that my parents and an army of kinfolk took the trouble to move here from Saskatchewan, many years ago, precisely because hardworking people were needed to help locate and extract all that oil.) Now I can simply point out that those who stayed behind have suddenly been revealed to be, almost literally, sitting on an assload of gems that has been left unprobed for decades. Luck ain’t something you get: it’s something you make.

Required reading for those in this province who think the difference between Aberta’s prosperity and Saskatchewan’s stagnation is oil.
Sometimes I do wonder how much better off this province would be today, had someone had the good sense to shoot Tommy Douglas.

“Uh, I Have No Idea”.

Political Animal No Comments

Hugh Hewitt has posted a transcript of his interview with Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Much hilarity ensues;

HEWITT: Sitting across from me Terry McAuliffe. Strike me dead. It’s so good to see you here Mr. Chairman. It’s good to have you at the Democratic National Convention and at the Republican National Convention
MCAULIFFE: Who would have thought that I’d be going around with a credential at the Republican Convention.
HEWITT: Can you stay for a couple of hours?
MCAULIFFE: Love to. Love it here. Everybody is being hospitable to me.
HEWITT: I want to start with some very easy questions.
MCAULIFFE: Yeah.
HEWITT: Do you believe that John Kerry took a CIA man into Cambodia and kept his hat?
MCAULIFFE: Uh, I have no idea.
[…]
HEWITT: When was the last time that he took questions on camera from journalists?
MCAULIFFE: I have no idea.
HEWITT: It was over a month.
MCAULIFFE: I will tell him that you are very concerned about this . . .
HEWITT: Does that tell you that the campaign is collapsing and he’s afraid to meet . . .
MCAULIFFE: Were you like this with Ronald Reagan when you could never get near him for years and he used to bring his car into the back door . .
HEWITT: [laugh] I was his lawyer. I couldn’t . . . I was in the White House Counsel’s office..
[…]
HEWITT: John Edwards yesterday said that he should sell the Iranians nuclear fuel. Do you agree with that, Terry McAuliffe?
MCAULIFFE: What did John Edwards say?

Read the whole thing.

“Don’t be economic girlie men!'”

Political Animal 2 Comments

Arnold rocks. He just blew me away. I’m probably not alone in saying I’d never heard him speak before, outside a few clips (generally accompanied by snide tv reporter commentary) while he was running in the California recall election. And no hint of following a teleprompter, either. Oddly, his Austrian accent isn’t as distracting in a lengthy speech as it is in a short soundbite.
Full text here.
I thought the Bush twins were a little lame, but it didn’t bother me. They’re kids, venturing onto the national stage for the first time. Laura was very good.
I was working out of the house all day, and caught part of the convention coverage when at a friend’s for dinner. Looks like Glenn Reynolds has a good cross section of links, reaction and analysis. Kevin Aylward has been blogging up a storm on the convention floor. (Very cool. Kevin was one of the first established bloggers who gave SDA a “leg up” by inviting me to guest blog at Wizbang a few months ago.)
Al Franken got caught engaging in a little shoving match.
I’m typing this while listening to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show in the background. He’s sounding a little frantic in his delivery. Shrill, even.
Odd technique, for comedy.

France: Still On the Other Side

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The Belmont Club has been following the French diplomatic movements in seeking release of the journalists kidnapped in Iraq.

If the French are not seeking to pay monetary or some other type of ransom to obtain the release of the two Frenchmen kidnapped by Iraqi terrorists nothing in their actions of the past few days makes sense. The French Foreign Minister, Michel Barner, is on tour of Middle Eastern capitals to seek support for the release of the hostages.
[…]
But the descent of so many French diplomats on Middle Eastern capitals suggests it is trying to cut a political deal with the terrorists and their backers. Since France has ruled out rescinding the headscarf ban to preserve the appearance of amour propre, the obvious alterntive is to make someone else make concessions. That someone will probably be Iraq. This may have sparked off the exchange between Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the Quai de Orsay. According to Xinhua:

… Allawi declared earlier Monday that the kidnapping of two French journalists showed that there was “no possible neutrality” in Iraq and that those who do not fight at the government level can not escape terrorism. “None of the civilized countries can escape,” he said, noting “there is no possible neutrality, as shows the kidnapping of the French journalists.” “The French deluded themselves if they would hope to stay outside,” he added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s declaration, which came after the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq and accused France’s position towards terrorism, was “unacceptable,” the French Foreign Ministry said Monday. “This declaration seems in fact to have cast doubt on France’s determination in the fight against terrorism … France is leading untiringly a resolute action against this scourge and it is always bringing its support and contribution to all the initiatives of the international community in this field,” said Cecile Pozzo di Borgo, spokeswoman of the French Foreign Ministry. The spokeswoman reiterated her country’s call for efforts to seek a “political solution” to the Iraqi crisis, adding that “the organization of free and democratic elections would permit to get together conditions of a real political and economic reconstruction of Iraq”. France has opposed the US-led Iraq war and has no troops in Iraq.

This suggests that the French diplomats are attempting to link the release of the French hostages to changes in the method and manner in which the Iraqi elections will be held.

Stay tuned.

RNC: Bloggers Row

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John Hinderaker (Powerline Blog), Roger L. Simon , and Tom Beavans – Realclearpolitics.
(Photo: Ed Morrisey)
Ed Morrisey of Captain’s Quarters;

Former New York Mayor and “lifelong Democrat” Ed Koch paid a visit to Blogger’s Corner and spoke about his support of George Bush.The mayor started off informally by asking us whether we would consider his weekly e-mail columns to be the equivalent of blogging, which we unanimously rejected. We think he’ll be blogging in the next couple of months.
[…]
I’ve met Tony Snow from Fox, who immediately recognized my name — which floored me. I’ll report later on the breakfast with Matthew Dowd and the interesting speech and Q & A we had this morning.

Kevin Aylward has notified his Wizbang readers that text of his interview with Ari Fleisher is being prepared and will be up shortly.
Powerline also has a quick video of Radio Row and Bloggers’ Corner. Some of the personalities present: Roger Simon, Ed Morrissey, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and Gereralissimo Duane. Video here.
Blogs for Bush has lots of audio links and more.
RNC Bloggers (group blog).
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.
Now.
Crossposted to the Shotgun

Iraq – Slow And Steady Progress

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Via Command Post;

Experts might debate exactly how much water there is in the Iraqi glass, but there is little doubt that – yet again – while the cameras and microphones were pointing towards the carnage, violence and corruption, Iraq has continued its slow and steady march out of its three-decades long nightmare into a much more normal tomorrow. Below are some of the positive developments and good news stories of the past fortnight that for most part received very little media attention. It’s a pity because the story of “Iraq, the phoenix rising from the ashes” is in many ways a lot more interesting, not to say consequential, than the usual steady media diet of “Iraq, the Wild East.”

Read the rest of Arthur Chernkoff’s Opinionjournal.com piece for the “rest of the story” on Iraq.

Dogs And Cats Lie Down Together

Little Known Facts 2 Comments

Sydney Morning Herald [subscription required];

People have flocked to a small village on the outskirts of Cambodia’s capital after a man claimed that his ten-year-old pet dog has defied nature and the ancient tradition of her species reviling cats and given birth to a kitten.
Owner Te Huot told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that his dog, called Knou, gave birth to a grey tabby kitten after he was visited by a forest monk who claimed that the dog had mated with a tiger. He said it was only the second time in the dog’s life that she had given birth, and that the first time, five years earlier, she had produced normal canine puppies.
However, he claimed that last Tuesday, Knou went into labour at his Chhbar Ampou village home and produced a single kitten.
The phenomenon has brought crowds thronging to Te Huot’s home to burn incense and give donations towards the dog and its tiny kitten, which Te Huot says is a sign from the gods.

The region is also known for its invisible flying dogs.

French Journalists Kidnapped

Terrorism 1 Comment

The French government, in crisis mode, on Sunday called for the release of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq by Islamic militants demanding that Paris rescind a ban on headscarves in state schools.
�
[…]
The two men went missing on August 20, the day they were to have left Baghdad for the central holy city of Najaf, then the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
�
Late Saturday, Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television broadcast images of Chesnot and Malbrunot along with an ultimatum from the Islamic Army in Iraq, the same group that killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni after kidnapping him.
�
The group gave Paris 48 hours to meet its demands, describing the ban on the Islamic veil in state schools as “an injustice and an attack on the Islamic religion,” the Qatar-based network reported, citing its “own sources in Iraq.”

Now, isn’t this a fine kettle of fish? Will France capitulate, or is she willing to sacrifice two of her sons to take a principled stand on the right to limit religious expression?

… both Chesnot and Malbrunot’s employers and Sunni Muslim scholars had earlier expressed faith that if they had been kidnapped, they would be safe because France had staunchly opposed the US-led war against Iraq.�

I guess they hadn’t noticed the intelligence report revealing that planning for the Madrid train bombings began prior to the 9/11 attacks, when Spain wasn’t in Iraq or anywhere else. You’d think that journalists and their employers would be on top of details like that.
Crossposted at the Shotgun

Third Time Unlucky

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Front Page Mag has a detailed comparison of the original and subsequently revised (sanitized) citations that accompany John Kerry’s Silver Star, and examination of the questions they raise.

Citation 3, like Citations 1 and 2, is undated.� But, again, we can narrow the time frame, since it was signed by John Lehman as Secretary of the Navy.� Lehman served from February1981 to April 1987�long after Kerry left Vietnam, long after he was separated from service, and during Kerry’s tenure as a United States Senator.
While it is not difficult to understand why Kerry apparently sought and obtained a sanitized second version of his Silver Star citation, at first glance it is not so easy to surmise why Kerry went after yet a third citation, this time from Lehman (especially because the third citation is word-for-word, in every important respect, the same as the second). �One theory dovetails with what may well have motivated him, at least in part, to prefer Hyland’s imprimatur over Zumwald’s.� Kerry, now a senator, may have been trying to upgrade his award, issued by a couple of “mere” admirals, to one issued by the Secretary of the Navy.

According to Front Page, correcting a citation isn’t easy.

This means that in order to obtain Citation 2, Kerry would have had to prove that there was an “error” in Citation 1 and/or that the existence of that citation somehow constituted an “injustice.”� Was the error in Citation 1 that he had shot the enemy soldier in the back, or that it was somehow an injustice to Kerry for the citation to say so?
As to obtaining Citation 3, there are two problems for Kerry.� First, since it is virtually identical with Citation 2, there could be no error or injustice.� Second, even if arguably there were, since the three-year statute of limitations had passed by the time Lehman was in office, in order for Kerry to obtain the correction, he would have had to prove that correcting Citation 2 was “in the interest of justice”.

The article was published Aug. 24.
This morning, one of the questions is cleared up by none other than former Navy Secretary John Lehman himself.

“It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me,” he said.

Complete Front Page article.

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