The Maddow Doctrine

... As described by Air America Radio and MSNBC propagandist Rachel Maddow on her radio show this past Friday --

"I've always felt like the way you talk about the war in Iraq is to take the biggest possible perspective on it, which is, the analogy for me is that we had some sort of horrible illness as a country, which was evident in our vulnerability to global terrorism (emphasis added) and we went into the hospital for that illness and what we were given was a medicine to which we were allergic and we had a horrible, awful, very threatening allergic reaction to it. And now, after five and a half years (laughs) in Iraq, we've conquered the allergic reaction and we have sort of gotten rid of the negative, some of the negative effects of the wrong medicine that we took. But we still have this horrible illness."

And al Qaeda is trying to cure us if only we'd let them.

Media ignores Barney Frank's Fannie Mae love connection

As reported by Jeff Poor at Media Research Center --

"Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?

"MSNBC's Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game.

"Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae's main defenders in the House - Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 - was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.

"The media coverage of Frank's coziness with Fannie Mae and his pro-Fannie Mae stances has been lacking. Of the eight appearances Frank made on the three broadcasts networks between Jan. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2008, none of his comments dealt with the potential conflicts of interest. Only six of the appearances dealt with the economy in general and two of those appearances, including an April 6, 2008 appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" were about his opposition to a manned mission to Mars.

"Frank has argued that family life "should be fair game for campaign discussion," wrote the Associated Press on Sept. 2. The comment was in reference to GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her pregnant daughter. "They're the ones that made an issue of her family," the Massachusetts Democrat said to the AP.

"The news media have covered the relationship in the past, but there have been no mentions since 2005, according to Nexis and despite the collapse of Fannie Mae. The July 3, 1998, Reliable Source column in The Washington Post reported Frank, who is openly gay, had a relationship with Herb Moses, an executive for the now-government controlled Fannie Mae. The column revealed the two had split up at the time but also said Frank was referring to Moses as his "spouse." Another Washington Post report said Frank called Moses his "lover" and that the two were "still friends" after the breakup ..."

Best description yet of Palin Derangement Syndrome

From "The Palin Effect" by Noemie Emery in Sept. 29 issue of The Weekly Standard --

"McCain picked Palin for a number of reasons--youth, pizzazz, energy, appeal to the base and to middle-class women, to the West and to blue-collar voters--but it may turn out that the main contribution she makes to his effort is in goading the Democrats into spasms of self-defeating and entirely lunatic rage. Somehow, every element of her life--the dual offense of being a beauty-queen and hunter; the Down syndrome baby who wasn't aborted; the teenage daughter about to get married, whose baby also wasn't aborted; the non-metrosexual husband working the nightshift; the very fact of five children--touched a nerve on the liberal template, and sent the whole beast into convulsions, opening an intriguing and somewhat frightening window onto the turbulent id of the left."

San Francisco Chronicle: Walt Monegan dislocated estranged wife's shoulder

Maybe it's just me, but isn't this kinda newsworthy? The San Francisco Chronicle also thinks so, as does Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com and Renee over at RedMassGroup.com where I first saw it --

"North to Alaska: It turns out that well before he was jettisoned for what he says was his refusal to fire trooper Wooten at the behest of Sarah Palin, Monegan had his own share of domestic troubles - some of them spilling all the way down to the Bay Area.

"In October 1994, Monegan's estranged wife, who had moved from Alaska to the Peninsula with the couple's two daughters after more than 10 years of marriage, sought a temporary restraining order against him -- accusing Monegan of threatening to kill her, waving a gun at her and dislocating her shoulder, (emphasis added) according to her declaration on file in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

"In an interview last week, Georgene Moldovan said Monegan had threatened several times to throw her body in an Alaska river.

"Monegan, 57, who has since remarried, vigorously denied Moldovan's allegations, both in court papers filed at the time and in an interview with us last week. "I'm not a door slammer - I don't punch walls," he said.

"Monegan admitted to dislocating Moldovan's shoulder, but said it was an accident that had happened before they were married, while they "were wrestling and tickling."

Yes indeed -- can't be too careful when it comes to "tickling."

Alaska state senator: Monegan was subject of previous probe by same Troopergate investigator

This was the eyebrow-raising revelation by Alaska state senator Bill Wielchowski, appearing Thursday on Ed Schultz's radio show to discuss the so-called Troopergate scandal.

Wielchowski disputed GOP assertions that the current probe has become politicized while he also touted investigator Steve Branchflower's credentials, describing him as a former prosecutor with more than two decades' experience who no longer lives in Alaska. Then came this --

"In fact," Wielchowski said, "he actually wrote a scathing report about Walt Monegan, the commissioner, a few years ago on another issue," (emphasis added) after which Wielchowski laughed.

Upon hearing that, any radio host with an ounce of curiosity -- or interest in the truth -- would have asked the inevitable follow-up question -- gee, what was that all about? Not Schultz -- he moved right to the next subject, and Wielchowski did not elaborate.

Just as curious is the apparent lack of information in the public domain about Branchflower's previous investigation of Monegan, the former Alaska public safety commissioner fired by Palin in July. Quick searches via Google and a glance through the Anchorage Daily News' Troopergate archives turned up nothing, not even in an Aug. 2 story about Branchflower being hired for the investigation. Maybe it's out there, somewhere, and if so I'd love to see it.

Hillary Clinton ducks from event that Palin will attend

... as reported by the Associated Press --

"WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has canceled an appearance at a New York rally next week after organizers blindsided her by inviting Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, aides to the senator said Tuesday.

"Several American Jewish groups plan a major rally outside the United Nations on Sept. 22 to protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Organizers said Tuesday that both Clinton, who nearly won the Democratic nomination for president, and Palin, Republican candidate John McCain's running mate, are expected to attend.

"That would have set up a closely scrutinized and potentially explosive pairing in the midst of a presidential campaign, one in which the New York senator is campaigning for Democratic nominee Barack Obama while Palin actively courts disappointed Clinton supporters.

"Clinton aides were furious. They first learned of the plan to have both Clinton and Palin appear when informed by reporters.

" 'Her attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event,' said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. 'Sen. Clinton will therefore not be attending.' "... (emphasis added)

Plus, Palin intimidates the hell out of Clinton ...

What about that investigation of Troopergate state trooper?

Curious lack of curiosity about this in media coverage if you ask me.

Think about it -- if the Alaskan police internal probe of alleged wrongdoing by state trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's former brother-in-law, had been a complete whitewash, would not the Palins have been justifiably irritated?

After all, the allegations against Wooten were serious enough -- and numerous enough -- to warrant serious scrutiny. Wooten had been accused of threatening to kill Sarah Palin's father, tasering his 10-year-old stepson, illegally killing a female moose and driving beer while driving a cruiser.

Yet just about all we learn from the media coverage, at least that I've seen, is that Wooten was "briefly" suspended after the police investigation.

As a former reporter who's done his share of crime stories, many questions come to mind about that investigation. For example --

• Was Wooten questioned in person, over the phone, via e-mail? How long did the interview with him last? Was there more than one? Did Wooten invoke the Fifth Amendment? If so, how many times in response to how many questions?
• Did Wooten deny the allegations?
• Is it true that Wooten tasered his 10-year-old stepson and, if so, for what reason?
• Is Wooten still authorized to use a taser? How about on minors?
• Did any of the investigating officers ever serve in the same police barracks as Wooten? Attend the same police academy class? Linked by marriage, church, military unit, civic group, softball team, etc.?
• If Wooten was found innocent of threatening to kill Sarah Palin's father, why was he reportedly suspended for several days?
• Media reports have also stated that Wooten has been married four times and that all four marriages ended in divorce. If this is true, did any of his wives file for divorce on the basis of cruel and unusual punishment?
• Did the investigating officers also look at allegations against Wooten that have not been reported? If so, what were they?
• Have any state troopers investigated by Alaska police ever lost their jobs? If so, how many? How does this compare with other states and the nation as a whole?
• What percentage of Alaskan state troopers are women? Native American? How many are in positions of authority? Are any involved in state police internal investigations?

These are just the tip of the iceberg of questions that should be asked. And probing questions have this wonderful habit of leading to more of same.

Rachel Maddow refuses to accept that US is withdrawing troops from Iraq

Maybe Air America Radio and MSNBC pontificator Rachel Maddow just can't help herself.

Here's what Maddow said on her radio show Monday about Defense Secretary Robert Gates visiting Baghdad and talking about a "shrinking" role for US combat troops in Iraq.

Maddow -- "That, of course, is slightly undercut by the fact that the president gave a speech last week in which he said there aren't any troops leaving Iraq, at least until after he's no longer president any more."

That "of course" is demonstrably untrue, as anyone who saw Bush's speech or read about it is aware. Here is what the president actually said on Sept. 9 about the alleged non-withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, as posted at C-SPAN --

"Today, I am pleased to announce the next step forward in our policy of "return on success." General Petraeus has just completed a review of the situation in Iraq - and he and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have recommended that we move forward with additional force reductions. Over the next several months, we will bring home about 3,400 combat support forces (emphasis added)- including aviation personnel, explosive ordnance teams, combat and construction engineers, military police, and logistical support forces. By November, we will bring home a Marine battalion that is now serving in Anbar province. And in February of 2009, another Army combat brigade will come home. This amounts to about 8,000 additional American troops returning home without replacement. And if the progress in Iraq continues to hold, General Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009."

Maddow also said something Monday that was unintentionally amusing -- "I think lying makes you look bad, I don't know. Maybe that's controversial."

"Maybe" only to Maddow.

Maddow and Matthews, slippery as usual

Here's what Rachel Maddow said last week on her MSNBC show about President Bush's announcement of troop withdrawals from Iraq --

"After President Bush announced yesterday that troop levels will stay the same through the end of his presidency and that he proposes that the next president bring home just 8,000 troops next February, which would leave more American forces in Iraq indefinitely then were there before the surge, John McCain didn't go on camera to comment on the subject, opting instead for a short written statement."

But as the New York Times' reporting on the matter makes clear, Maddow's claims are patently false. Here is what the Times reported on Tuesday, Sept. 9 --

"As President Bush announced today that he would draw down the level of troops in Iraq by 8,000 early next year, the presidential candidates and their surrogates — as well as other politicians — began weighing in."

In other words, 8,000 US troops will leave Iraq by February, not in "next February," as Maddow falsely claims, nor did Bush say "troop levels will stay the same through the end of his presidency," as Maddow also pulled out of thin air.

Maddow's MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews did much the same thing in speaking with Maddow, claiming the US is "still stuck" in Iraq "to the point they can't, the president says they can't spare a man or a woman, we're that stuck."

This only two days after president announced that 8,000 troops will be, uh, unstuck from Iraq by February.

Liberals like Maddow and Matthews who complain about deceit from McCain and Palin might make a more convincing argument if they did not engage in it themselves.

Golden Moonbat Award, #2

Guest host Norman Goldman, an LA attorney, sitting in for Ed Schultz on Friday and talking about Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas --

"If we had it his way, blacks would be slaves again! I mean, I half-expect Clarence Thomas to come out and say, 'C'mon! Put me back in chains and send me down to the cotton mill!' "

Obama to appear on season premiere of "Saturday Night Live"

... as reported by People magazine, which is touting this as an exclusive --

"Michael Phelps isn't the only person hoping to make waves on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live this weekend. He will be joined by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who'll be jetting in from New Hampshire, PEOPLE has learned, but whose role in the show is like many of the voters he covets: undecided.

"The details of the sketch are still being worked out," an Obama campaign spokesperson tells PEOPLE. ..."

Every day is September 12

Amazing photo, isn't it?

I took it from a chartered flight in July 1993, a bachelor party for my future brother-in-law who's now a brother to me.

We flew due west from Plymouth to the Hudson River on a clear day in summer, then south to Manhattan, not far from the flight path taken by Flight 11, the first of the planes to strike on another crystalline morning eight years later.

Flying over the Hudson River with the New York skyline to our left, I remember thinking how odd it was that we could come so close to the skyscrapers, and that a bomber plane had slammed into the Empire State Building toward the end of World War II. That was my first reaction on Sept. 11, 2001, as I awakened my 2-year-old son and my wife called up to say a plane hit the World Trade Center. Must be another military plane, I thought. Turns out it was.

After passing Lower Manhattan, the skyscrapers looming above us and looking close enough to touch, we circled twice around the Statue of Liberty. I took the photo shown here during one of those circuits. From this perspective, we could see what the doomed souls on Flight 175 later saw in the last seconds of their lives. Minutes earlier, as we flew over the George Washington Bridge and approached Manhattan, we saw what those on Flight 11 last witnessed before barbarians snuffed out their lives.

I keep this photo on the wall of my office, not far from photos of my family and other relatives and cherished friends and wonderful places I've had the good fortune to visit. I keep this photo as a reminder that the more we lull ourselves into complacency about the threat posed by militant Islam, the more likely the wolves will strike again.

As they say in AA, the further you get from your last drink, the closer you are to the next.

Obama and Biden voted $223 million for Bridge to Nowhere instead of Katrina rebuilding

One devoutly hopes the McCain-Palin campaign harps on this incessantly.

From an op-ed column by US Senator Jim DeMint, R-S.C., in today's Wall Street Journal --

"... Mrs. Palin also killed the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in her own state. Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation's budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.

"When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, (emphasis added) siding with the old boys' club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark."

Randi Rhodes claims McCain was "well treated" while a POW

Hard to believe the lefty radio host would say this. Then again, not at all. Brian Maloney of The Radio Equalizer is all over it.

Maloney writes --

... During the first hour of Friday's Randi Rhodes Show, she had this to
say about McCain's sacrifices during the Vietnam War (clip follows immediately
thereafter):
RHODES: Of course he (McCain) became very friendly with the
Vietnamese. They called him the Prince. He was well treated actually. And he was
well treated because he traded these propaganda interviews for good treatment.
So look, it's a horrible story anyway you cut it, anyway you look at it, any way
you you you deal with it.But, it's not the story Fred Thompson told. Nor is it
the story Rudy Giuliani told. Nor is it the story Sarah Palin told. Nor is it
the story anybody. Cindy McCain knew to limit herself to 'I think what my
husband did in Vietnam was heroic' because she knows the truth too. ...

That Rhodes believes this gibberish is not surprising for another reason. After all, isn't everyone treated well in leftist totalitarian hellholes?

"Rev. Wright Done Me Wrong," church employee alleges

Bombshell story in today's New York Post about Jeremiah Wright allegedly involved in affair with woman 30 years younger.

Palin banned book list debunked

... as reported by the Los Angeles Times --

"... In fact, one widely circulated, very long list (which appears, among other places, on Librarian.net's comment string and has been disavowed by the website's owner) is obviously false because it includes four books that had not yet hit shelves when Palin became mayor in 1996 (emphasis added) — "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," all by J.K. Rowling. ..."

Maddow describes herself as "cripplingly patriotic"

Yes -- "cripplingly." Much like John McCain, except that McCain's devotion to country left him actually crippled.

Rachel Maddow described herself thus in a profile in today's Boston Globe, on the day her TV show premieres on MSNBC.

ABC's Gibson lands first Palin interview

... as reported here by the Associated Press.

That would be Obama who's doing this

Laugh-out loud funny gaffe by Barack Obama on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this morning --

Obama -- "You're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith and you're absolutely right that that has not come ..."

Stephanopoulos -- "Christian faith."

Obama -- "... my, my Christian faith ..."

The Palin Effect - Zogby shows McCain-Palin up by nearly 4

What a way to start the week -- more on these polling numbers by following this link

Unhinged radio talk show host alert

Listeners to "The Ed Schultz Show" must wonder if McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for running mate brought out the inner Neanderthal in Schultz, a top-ranked progressive talker who broadcasts out of Fargo, N.D.

All through his show on Monday, Schultz disparaged Palin as an "empty pantsuit" and "Mary Kay salesman" and went so far as to challenge Palin's fitness as a mother.

"The other issue that's been brought up, her child, recently giving birth to a child, is Down syndrome," Schultz said. "What kind of a family value is it for a mother to run off and run for the vice presidency of the United States in this situation?! I'm just asking."

Later in the show, Schultz pursued the same line of criticism. "How much time is she going to be able to spend with a Down syndrome baby at four months and be vice president of the United States?!" Schultz asked emphatically. "What's the priority here?!

By the last hour of Monday's show, Schultz's female listeners had enough. When a third woman called and accused Schultz of "attacking" Palin, Schultz's volcanic temper erupted.

"I'm not attacking her personally!" Schultz shouted. "Don't tell me that! I am tired of that! I am not attacking anyone personally! She is a right-wing ideologue and she is inexperienced!"

Schultz undoubtedly did little to endear himself with women by also referring that day to Cindy McCain as a "bimbo," a cheap shot he proudly keeps repeating ever since as an alleged badge of honor.

Something else happened during the week -- Schultz developed selective amnesia about his criticism of Palin as unfit mother. By Thursday he was fobbing it off on his callers and blaming them.

"I was watching MSNBC yesterday afternoon," Schultz said, "and Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for Reagan, basically quoted me, she referred to me, saying that she had watched some cable news show the other night and somebody said, questioning whether she was a good mother or not. I wasn't doing that. I was being a facilitator because callers to this program were asking, where are her priorities?"

Olbermann "visibly upset" by 9/11 tribute video at RNC

"Visibly upset" -- how could they tell?

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann exuded mock indignation last night in response to a 9/11 tribute video show at the Republican convention, as described today in this post at Crooks and Liars.

"I speak as someone who lost a few friends there," Olbermann said.

Fortunately for Olbermann, many of his other friends in al Qaeda continue their undying efforts to this day.

Weak-kneed Oprah won't allow Palin on show until after election

This according to The Huffington Post, which ran a story today with the following statement from Winfrey --

"The item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over."

Hey, why take any chances with such an intelligent, compelling and appealing candidate who just happens to be a woman? (and a Republican)

Odds of Palin dropping from race plummet at Intrade

... which helps explain why you may be hearing little on the odds of this happening, compared to the initial burst of speculation that Sarah Palin was doomed. This past Tuesday night, for example, a story at The Huffington Post cited Intrade odds of 15 percent that Palin wouldn't last on the GOP ticket. As of tonight, nearly 24 hours after her blockbuster speech at the GOP convention, those odds have plummeted to 5.5 percent.

Except for being able to leave whenever you want. Except for that.

Lefty radio host Ed Schultz, complaining yesterday about broadcasting from Radio Row at the Republican National Convention:

"It's almost like being in captivity. It really is."

Rachel Maddow, slippery as usual

Classic example of Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow's twisted logic - on Tuesday, MSNBC's "Race for the White House" host David Gregory asked whether Barack Obama's lack of experience was fair game for criticism if Democrats disparaged Sarah Palin for the same.

Maddow's response:

If you have an inexperienced vice president, that means that the country could be in their hands. With Barack Obama, if they experience worries about him, if something happens to him, the country will be in good hands with Joe Biden. It doesn't go both directions.

Actually it does, and in a way that undercuts Maddow's argument. If you have an inexperienced president - Obama, for example - that means the country will be in his hands.

So much for underestimating Palin

You have to go back to Reagan for a convention speech that good. Sarah Palin has made this a race and Democrats can't deny it. Even if McCain/Palin lose in November, she's a force to be reckoned with.

Seriously considering returning to blogger.com

... and I'm finding that there's much more I can do since I last blogged here. Think I'll take it out for a few test drives.

What the heck, how 'bout liveblogging Bubba too

... Actually voted for the man, and twice at that. Pre-adulthood.

9:02 -- Clinton enters to funky version of "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." I didn't think there was such a thing, either.

9:05 -- Still imploring delegates to sit ... now, please!

9:06 -- "I love Joe Biden and America will too." Clearly this is not the case now.

9:07 -- First lower-lip bite, a golden oldie.

9:08 -- Egads, Chevy Chase! Still milking that single year as anchorman on SNL.

9:10 -- Why is Michelle Obama wearing blue swirly doughnuts on her dress?

9:11 -- Obama will repair "our badly strained military." And never use it again.

9:12 -- By picking Biden, Obama "hit it out of the park." Right up there with "I did not have sex ..."9:14 -- Diplomacy first and military force "as a last resort." In other words, we gotta get hit first.

9:16 -- Fifteen minutes in, the recognition takes hold among delegates -- Bubba likes his speeches long, and he'll be followed by a windbag non pareil.

9:18 -- Obligatory mention of Katrina, helping patch Hillary's omission.

9:20 -- McCain as "extreme" ... well, yes, compared to Kucinich.

9:22 -- "In this case, the third time is not the charm" -- Master of the Trite.

9:23 -- Lower Lip Bite #2.

9:25 -- Yes, "a place called hope." The man is shameless.

(Initially posted at my Left Wing Escapee Typepad blog)

First stab at liveblogging, while watching Hillary Clinton speak at DNC

10:37 -- Obligatory video intro ... to different versions of "You Really Got Me" (wow, that's chutzpah) ... Lenny Kravitz ... Tom Petty's "American Girl" ... kewl!

10:40 -- Is it my imagination or is there a heck of a lot more Chelsea than Bill in this video ...?

10:42 -- Chelsea introduces "my hero," her mother ... whatever happened to "heroine"?

10:43 -- Who suggested orange pantsuit, Billy Corgan?

10:44 -- Clinton supporters go wild while Michelle Obama grits teeth and makes sound of one hand clapping

10:47 -- Fox News cutting to reactions from Biden and Michelle Obama after every second or third sentence; half dozen shots of Obama, she hasn't smiled yet (a real one anyway, like those in abundance at last night's communal hug)

10:49 -- Switching over to MSNBC ... more reaction shots from crowd

10:54 -- Five minutes in, still no reax from Biden/Mrs. O on MSNBC As if viewers don't want to see this, albeit not every 10 seconds. Over to CNN ...

10:56 -- Not a barn-burner but doing what it has to do; Clinton is relaxed, confident, poised. This could be her last big moment before such a large audience. She knows she has to nail it.

10:58 -- CNN reaction shot of stone-faced Michelle Obama.

11:01 -- "And we know that President Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly" ... a war that's already ending, and would have been lost had the US done what Obama wanted two years ago.

11:04 -- Biden nails look of feigned reverence

11:07 -- Count me among those who think Clinton would have made a better pick for Obama than Biden, a belief that preceded her speech

11:09 -- Not many people wiping away tears, though

11:10 -- Claims progress "impossible" without Democrat in White House ... checking lower part of garment for spontaneous combustion ...

11:14 -- Plausible praise for Michelle Obama and Joe Biden

11:15 -- Enough of this for now ...

(Initially posted at my Left Wing Escapee Typepad blog)

National Review endorses Romney

Romney reels in a big one, and the timing couldn't be better with Huckabee surging. Here's what the editors of National Review had to say -

"Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. Each of the men running for the Republican nomination has strengths, and none has everything — all the traits, all the positions — we are looking for. Equally conservative analysts can reach, and have reached, different judgments in this matter. There are fine conservatives supporting each of these Republicans.

"Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest. While he has not talked much about the importance of resisting ethnic balkanization — none of the major candidates has — he supports enforcing the immigration laws and opposes amnesty. Those are important steps in the right direction ..."

Follow this link to read the endorsement in its entirety.

Jacoby keeps it real on Iran

Great column by the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby on Dec. 9 under the headline, "No reason to relax on Iran" -

Jacoby writes, "Now that the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear intentions has had a few days to cool off, how does it look? A few reflections:

"1. Iran's nuclear program is alive and well. Yes, I know - the very first of the NIE's 'key judgments,' the one that launched a thousand headlines, is that 'Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program' in the fall of 2003. But what that first sentence giveth, a footnote to that sentence taketh away: 'By 'nuclear weapons program,' explains footnote 1, 'we mean Iran's declared civil work related to uranium conversion and enrichment."

"But that's a distinction without a difference, since the accumulation of enriched uranium is by far the most important component in developing nuclear weapons," Jacoby writes (emphasis added. "Iran's 'civil' uranium enrichment - those 3,000 centrifuges spinning at Natanz - continues unabated, in defiance of Security Council resolutions ordering that it stops. Whether the nuclear-fuel program is labeled 'civilian' or 'military' is irrelevant. The more uranium the mullahs enrich, the closer they are to getting the bomb."

First recipient of Mike Malloy Golden Moonbat Award

Who better to receive the first such award than its namesake, the unhinged and exceedingly angry radio host Mike Malloy for this timeless rant on Friday that contained no less than four - count 'em - four lies about 9/11:

" ... airplanes crashing into the Pentagon that didn't exist, buildings collapsing that couldn't collapse, a total shutdown of the North American Air Defense Command, nobody doing anything while four, five, six, seven commercial jetliners are hijacked!"

Better yet, Malloy is yelling while making these claims -- way to go, Mike!

Malloy's show, broadcast from Atlanta, is carried by several dozen stations nationwide and XM satellite radio. He was fired last year by Air America, as he's mentioned on the air, for apparently being too unhinged even for the hardcore comrades there.

Happiness is a bodyguard with a warm gun

John Lennon retreated to the Dakota in 1975 to raise his newborn son and didn't come out for the next five years.

And when Lennon did, the world had changed, and not for the better.

So observed a writer in Esquire magazine several years ago in an article entitled, "The Case for Guns."I didn't save the article, but something about it stayed with me. The author asked - why didn't Lennon have a bodyguard?

Turns out Lennon had been asked the same thing, the author wrote, and the former Beatle cited the example of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.In March 1978 Moro was kidnapped by Red Brigades terrorists, who killed all five of his bodyguards. Two months later, Moro's lifeless body was found in the back of a car.

What's the point of hiring bodyguards if we all end up dead, Lennon asked.Which was completely in character for Lennon, and still painfully naive.

Given the circumstances leading to Lennon's death, any bodyguard worth his or her salt would have been wary of Mark David Chapman, the man who killed Lennon.Even the mere presence of a bodyguard might have been enough to deter a hollow shell like Chapman. That Chapman hung around for hours after Lennon signed an album jacket for him, waiting until Lennon and Yoko Ono returned home around 11 p.m., would have made most any bodyguard suspicious.

If someone was going to die outside the Dakota on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, it should have been Chapman instead of Lennon.

And Ono spared the agony of seeing her husband shot five times from behind.

And the couple's 5-year-old son growing up with his father still alive and hearing a briefly reunited Beatles sing "In My Life" at the young man's wedding.

Did Iran suspend its nuclear weapons program because of the invasion of Iraq?

According to the NIE released Monday, Iran suspended its illicit nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003.

About six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. And only two months before Libya decided to abandon its pursuit of nuclear arms.

Did the war with Iraq prompt Iran to suspend its nuclear weapons program? Maybe, maybe not. The timing begs the question, but what's odd about the media coverage over the last few days - and I've read a half-dozen stories on the NIE in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and on the CNN website - I have yet to see a single reference to even the possibility of a connection.

But what if the NIE had reported that Iran initiated a covert nuclear weapons program six months after the invasion of Iraq - think we'd hear about a connection then? We'd be hearing of little else.

They're baacckk .... and boy, are they ever

... and a hat tip to wavemaker for this one ...

Murtha: 'The surge is working'

A headline I also never thought I'd see, or at least the part that includes Congressman John Murtha. But in fairness to Murtha, an early proponent of US withdrawal from Iraq before the job is done, the man is willing to give credit where credit is due.

Here's the full story as reported today by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Bill Press's Polish joke falls flat

Radio host Bill Press in a promo for his show, as heard Monday afternoon on Sirius Left -

"Who says the level of violence in Iraq is decreasing? Iraq claimed another victim over the weekend and a really big one this time," Press chortled with barely concealed glee, "the prime minister of Australia, just the latest political leader to fall for his support of George Bush's war in Iraq. First, remember, it was Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar. Next, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi. And then, the UK's Tony Blair. And now, it's Australia's John Howard, humiliated in defeat after 11 years in power. Why? Because he insisted on keeping Australian troops in Iraq when everybody else - even Poland - had decided to bring their troops home.

"Even Poland," Bill?

Not only are Press's comments insulting to anyone of Polish descent, they are glaringly inaccurate. "Everybody else" have not turned tail and fled from Iraq, as Press would like to see. American troops have turned the tide of this war - and we are winning. And the more the situation improves in Iraq, the more unhinged the Left becomes in America.

I'd suggest they should be ashamed, but that would presume they have any.

Discerning terrorists' rights from wrongs

Excerpt from a profile in the Nov. 26 Weekly Standard titled "Rudy Giuliani, Disciplinarian" -

Giuliani, quoted in the article -

"Someone once said to me that what they don't get about the Democrats, and even some Republicans that do this, is they're more concerned about rights for terrorists than the terrorist' wrongs," Giuliani went on. "I mean, this granting of rights to criminals and terrorists, even when they're necessary, come with a price, a price at the other end of it. Even for the ones that are necessary, like, let's say, the Miranda ruling, it's one you agree with - there's a price for that. Maybe it's one worth paying. The exclusionary rule, there's a big price for that: Criminals go free. They walk out of court.

If you say, you know, no aggressive questioning, then we're not going to find out about situations. If you say no wiretapping, well, there'll be conversations going on, planning to bomb New York, or Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and you're not going to find out. And, when we draw these lines, at least let's be honest with people about the consequences of them. Let's not fool them into thinking that there are no consequences to this. People will say that aggressive questioning doesn't work. I, you know, I ... Honest answer to that is, it doesn't work all the time. Sometimes it does."

Happy Thanksgiving to all

... with a hat tip to my friend Wave Maker for this one ...

Unstated subtext for Hiroshima story - hold your head in shame

"Paper cranes fly for peace 62 years after Hiroshima" reads the headline for a story in today's Boston Globe, one that takes up most of the first page of the City & Region section - "For the fourth-graders at the Joseph P. Tynan Elementary School," writes Globe staffer Tania deLuzuriaga, "Japan is a faraway place, and World War II is something that happened before most of their grandparents were born. But the war has come home to them through the story of a young Japanese girl whose life was cut short by the effects of the atomic bomb dropped on her city 62 years ago."

Something else "cut short" by the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and another three days later on Nagasaki, though you'd never know it from reading this story - an abrupt end to the bloodiest and most destructive war in history, one that claimed 60 million lives.

The difference between us and them, in a nutshell

As reported today by the Associated Press -

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least three children and three of the troops, US and Iraqi authorities said ...

Thanks again, Ralph

"We remember the last time we had faith that anything good would ever happen again in the world," reads the blurb on page 3 of the Sidekick supplement in today's Boston Globe on a screening of "An Unreasonable Man, a documentary about Ralph Nader. "Just about the time we checked off Ralph Nader's name on the ballot ..." (what's this "we" stuff, paleface?) "All downhill since then. The truth is, he has done some remarkable things over the years, such as revolutionizing consumer safety standards." And preventing Al Gore from winning the presidency - bravo, Ralph!

Weather Channel founder: Global warming 'greatest scam in history'

Granted, John Coleman is not a Nobel laureate or Oscar winner like Al Gore, he's just a mere meteorologist who started something called The Weather Channel 20 years ago (and Coleman is no relation to me, though I like that we share the same name). An op-ed by Coleman that's posted at Icecap is causing quite a stir in the blogosphere -

"It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

"Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmentally conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minute documentary segment.

"I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it ..."

Follow this link to read the remainder of Coleman's op-ed.

Go figure

"Rally to honor Arafat turns violent" - headline on page A9 in today's Boston Globe.

How about 'Ministry of Truth' radio?

"I don't even call it 'liberal radio,' I call it 'truth radio' " - Nova M Radio co-founder Shelly Drobny on angry, angry moonbat Mike Malloy's radio show Friday.

Al Qaeda reaches out to children

... which isn't surprising in the least of jihadists for whom nothing is beyond the pale - as reported this morning by the AP -

LONDON - Britain faces an increased threat from al Qaeda-inspired terrorism and is now home to at least 2,000 people who pose a direct threat to the country's security, including children who are being groomed by extremists, the director of the domestic spy agency said yesterday.

Truer words never spoken

"History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake. Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is, will we listen? ... Some here in Washington, D.C., dismiss it as a political rhetoric, an attempt to scare people into votes. Given the nature of the enemy and the words of its leaders, politicians who deny that we are at war are either being disingenuous or naive. Either way, it is dangerous for our country. We are at war and we cannot win this war by wishing it away or pretending it does not exist" - President George W. Bush, speaking at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday.

A lazy, simplistic editorial

Yesterday's lead editorial in the Boston Sunday Globe condemning the "intellectually lazy analogy of Islamism to fascism" was difficult to take seriously after reading this whopper of a paragraph -

"Al Qaeda and company cannot be compared with the fascist powers ruled by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco - neither for their ideas nor for their military power. The Nazis scorned religion, wanting to make the state the sole object of worship. Bin Laden and Hitler might share a proclivity for cruelty and killing, but for little else. Hitler cherished the operas of Wagner; bin Laden and his Taliban allies have been known to put musicians to the lash for playing music at a wedding. And bin Laden has no panzer divisions."

"Bin Laden and Hitler might share a proclivity for cruelty and killing, but for little else."

Amazing. Where to begin?

Bin Laden and Hitler share far more than that, unbeknownst to the intellectually lazy editorial writers at the Globe. For example, the main thing they share in common, an elephant-in-the-room parallel that all but the most oblivious can ignore, is in their visceral loathing and wanton pathological cruelty toward Jews. And there's no "might" about it.

How about these for other parallels - Hitler and bin Laden's absolute intolerance of dissent, an unwavering belief in the alleged messianic quality of their respective crusades (yes, crusades) and the utter lack of anything resembling irony, self-deprecation or introspection.

Agreed, "bin Laden has no panzer divisions." Nor did he need them to destroy the World Trade Center, inflict grievous damage to the Pentagon and slaughter 3,000 innocent people in less than two hours.

Most importantly, Hitler and bin Laden share something else in common - a wolf-like grasp of appeasement disguised as well-reasoned argument from their foes.

RIP, Paul Tibbets

A link here to an op-ed I wrote last year for the Providence Journal about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the cruiser that delivered the atom bomb to Tinian, where it was flown to Hiroshima on a B-29 piloted by Paul Tibbets, who died Thursday at 92.

As I pointed out in the op-ed, the loss of the Indianapolis and the deaths of more than 900 sailors in its crew of 1,200 represents the worst-ever loss of life for an American naval vessel at sea - and it occurred less than two weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima.

Only one other American warship ever suffered more casualties in battle - the battleship Arizona, sunk within minutes of the start of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

I wonder how many revisionist historians have asked survivors from both ships if they thought the bombing of Hiroshima was justified.

Dept. of Unintentional Humor

"We have to play hardball if we're going to try to end this war" - US Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., speaking today with radio talk show host Ed Schultz.

Hey, look at what they did to Papillon

"Rumsfeld flees France, Fearing Arrest" blares the headline over at AlterNet, followed by this:

"Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today (Oct. 29) fearing arrest over charges of 'ordering and authorizing' torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.
"U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's 'war on terror' for six years ..."

Great moments in Escapee history: Khrushchev blinks

On this day in 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, convinced that the resolve shown by American president John F. Kennedy was far more than bluster, agreed to remove Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba, thereby ending the Cuban Missile Crisis. Before agreeing to do so, Khrushchev extracted two promises from Kennedy - for the US to never invade Cuba and to remove American missiles from Turkey. Both promises were kept, though the existence of the latter part of the agreement was kept secret for decades.

The 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis eventually cost both leaders dearly. Little more than a year later, Kennedy was assassinated by an avowed Marxist who sought and was refused asylum in the alleged workers' paradise of his hero, Fidel Castro, two months earlier. Within a year of Kennedy's death, Khrushchev was deposed in a bloodless coup.

Haven't the Jews suffered enough?

As reported Friday by the Associated Press -

NEW YORK -- Halle Berry is the latest celebrity to join the Foot-in-Mouth Club. The 41-year-old actress has apologized for making an inappropriate joke at last Friday's taping of NBC's "The Tonight Show."
Berry, who showed host Jay Leno photos of herself that she had distorted by using computer software, remarked that one snapshot - in which her nose appeared cartoonishly large - made her "look like my Jewish cousin."

Chicken Little morphs into Give 'em Heck Harry

"We can't just walk away and no one suggests we can" - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid telling radio host Ed Schultz today why Democrats won't end funding for the war.

Quite a change of tone for the good Senator since his assertion last spring that "this war is lost."

Hair peace, man

A lock of lefty icon and posthumous screen fave Che Guevera sells for $100,00 at auction, according to today's New York Times ...

... which ended when the aliens realized Kucinich could never be our leader

In her new book, Shirley MacLaine claims that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich had an "extremely moving" encounter with a UFO at her home in Washington state ...

Rudolph the Red Knows Rain, Dear

Russian czar wannabe Vlad "The Impaler" Putin commenting on new US sanctions against Iran, as reported in today's Wall Street Journal - "I think running around like a lunatic - with a razor and waving a red banner - isn't the best way to solve this kind of problem," said Putin, perhaps alluding to his own experience with this sort of thing while running the KGB.

Tax policy 101

"It's a product that you're taxing, it's not the people that you're taxing" - prairie populist Ed Schultz on his show today while talking with a listener about tobacco taxes.

Ditto

Director Francis Ford Coppolla in an interview in the November issue of GQ magazine, asked what he thought of The Sopranos -

"I never saw The Sopranos. I was so sick of gangsters."

Great moments in Escapee history

Radio Berlin International's final broadcast on this date in 1990; last song "The End" by the Doors.

Reassuring its readers worried about American victory in Iraq

From an editorial in today's Boston Globe under the headline, "Iraq's war of the warlords" -

"When the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr called last week for a freeze on his Mahdi Army's operations, it might have been tempting to take it as a positive step toward reducing violence and promoting stability in Iraq."

... Yes, especially "tempting" for the sane and rational among us ...

"But even if his directive is heeded by most components of the far-from-unitary Mahdi Army, any such timeout will only be a tactical pause to let Sadr's forces regroup."

... Globe editorialists being privy to an infallible crystal ball allowing them to predict the future ...

"It hardly portends a transformation of the basic situation in Iraq."

... Let me see if I have this straight - even if "most" of Sadr's army lay down their arms, thereby refraining from further mass killings that have already stained their hands with the blood of thousands, this is not a "positive step"?

In other words - not to worry, we might lose this war yet!

Seeger's next song - "Why Bush reminds me of Stalin"

From today's New York Times - "This Just in: Pete Seeger Denounced Stalin over a decade ago" - a mere four decades after the tyrant's demise.

The creaky troubadour has even written a song to celebrate his Rip van Winkle-esque denunciation of Stalin, titled - I kid you not - "Big Joe Blues."

Anticipate similarly inclined lefties to denounce radical Islamists sometime around 2050.

Pay no attention to his running dog-eared copy of Little Red Book

Exceedingly angry left-wing radio host Mike Malloy, again from last night's rant - in response to a caller quoting Frederick Douglass -

"Well how many people are familiar with the sayings of Frederick Douglass, A, or the sayings of Mao for that matter. They were pretty similar. Not that I'm a Maoist by any means, but when it comes revolutionary statements, you get them where you get them."

" ... you get them where you get them ..."? Yes, especially when they hit close to home.

Yet another example of the love that dares not speak its name.

Yes, it is so 5-year-old, Mike

Unhinged moonbat radio host Mike Malloy on his show last night, of the vastly more intelligent and talented Rush Limbaugh -

"You know sometimes I wish Rush Limbaugh would choke to death on his next plate of crab legs with Oxycontin on the side, I really do. What a vicious, vile, hate-filled man. It's just, he's, he's he's ... (deep breath) ... And I normally don't wish people dead, I mean, that's so 5-year-old, isn't it, huh?

"But when I hear Rush Limbaugh's voice and his point of view, I just wish he'd choke to death."

That'll shut him up!

Reminiscent of relentlessly biased coverage

A story published yesterday by the New York Times Service, running under the headline "Bush relentless in making case for his Iraq strategy," and written by Steven Lee Myers:

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush's Iraq strategy faces a crisis of faith these days - from the American public. And he is confronting it the way he has previous crises: with a relentless campaign to persuade people to see things his way.
Bush interrupted his annual August retreat here last week for a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars replete with historical references to Vietnam.
Back at his ranch, he recorded a radio address that showed neither doubt nor any intention to reducing the U.S. commitment in Iraq. On Tuesday, he will speak to the American Legion in Reno, Nev., arguing a hasty withdrawal of troops would prove disastrous.

( ... wow, two speeches and a radio address - pretty "relentless" stuff ...)

"We are still in the early stages of our new operations," Bush said in the radio address Saturday as if there were not those who fervently wished the country was in the later stages, preparing to bring the troops home.

(... most of whom are dutifully employed in the mainstream media ...)

In military parlance, the White House's strategy is called preparing the battlefield - in this case for the series of reports and hearings scheduled on Capitol Hill next month to debate the wisdom of struggling on in the midst of Iraq's sectarian chaos and bloodshed. If recent history is a guide, Bush may well prevail, as he did in January when he made a similar blitz ...

(... as Nazis are inclined to do ...)

... to build the case for dispatching more troops to Iraq, despite swelling public opposition to the war and a Democratic rout in last November's elections.

( ... what's this "rout" stuff, paleface ...?)

Is there another kind?

From an Associated Press obituary today for Grace Paley, who died last week of breast cancer.

NEW YORK - Poet and short story writer Grace Paley, a literary eminence and old-fashioned eminence who described herself as a "combative pacifist," has died. She was 84.

Desperate indeed

Boston Globe columnist H.D.S. Greenway is in rare form today, once again displaying his abiding sympathy for Arab solidarity over Israeli survival. Greenway writes -- "Today there is an offer on the table ..." -- is it ticking, by chance? -- "... from all 22 countries of the Cairo-based Arab League. Return to the 1967 lines and peace with full recognition will follow.

"The Arabs are desperate to just get it done!" Greenway goes on to write (exclamation point in the original!). "Let's forget all the suffocating confidence-building measures and phased withdrawals that in the past have been the death of peace, they say."

Yes, and let's overlook the suicide bombings, the rocket attacks and kidnappings of soldiers, the emboldened aggression in response to Israeli's withdrawal from Gaza and southern Lebanon ...

Annals of hypocrisy: Exhibit A

The AP reports today that Barbra Streisand canceled a concert in Rome next month after "protests by Italian consumer groups angered by what they said were excessively high ticket prices" -- from "just under $200 to more than $1,200."

A tour promoter claimed the cancellation was due to "unexpected production delays" -- code, perhaps, for Streisand's dwindling number of fans in Italy willing to produce sufficient lira to watch the diva perform.

No greater love

The letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2d Rhode Island unit to his wife in Smithfield, R.I., which I first heard during the initial television broadcast of Ken Burns' superb documentary, "The Civil War," in the fall of 1990 --

July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington

My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans on the triumph of the government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt ...

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood around us.

I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me - perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness ...

But, oh Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights ... always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think that I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

As those who familiar with the documentary and Civil War are aware, Ballou was killed a week later in the first Battle of Bull Run.

Going for jugular by way of Achilles heel

From another story in Monday's Boston Globe, this one under the headline, "McCain blasts Romney for immigration stance change" --
"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," McCain said of Romney's immigration position, according to McCain's campaign. "And maybe his solution will be to get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard," an allusion to illegal immigrant laborers working as landscapers at Romney's home in Belmont, as reported by the Globe last December.

The odds of McCain saying something along these lines in the next GOP debate -- about 100 to 1 in favor.

Forecasters also expect a busy season for hurricane predictions

The same story that appears about this time every year, as published in today's Boston Globe -- "Forecasters expect busy hurricane season on the East Coast."

There they go again

A dutiful heads-up about Democrats in Congress by way of the observant editorial page editors of the Wall Street Journal, from an editorial in the May 19-20 weekend edition of the paper --

"With all the other news this week, the media barely noticed that Congressional Democrats passed a budget outline that envisions more than $200 billion in tax increases over five years. Seems worth reporting to us." (emphasis added)

This at a time when the cumulative effect of the Bush tax cuts have federal revenues climbing so rapidly "that this year they may reach 19 percent of GPD -- above the 40-year average of 18.3 percent. Apparently, Democrats think this tax windfall isn't enough."

Ron Paul's sliver of truth

First off, what Texas Congressman Ron Paul actually said in last night's debate about 9/11:

"I think the party has lost its way because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a non-interventionist foreign policy. Sen. Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy, no nation building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War, Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican Party, it is the constitutional position, it is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.

"Just think of the tremendous improvement in (our) relationship with Vietnam. We lost 60,000 men, we came home in defeat, now we go over there and invest in Vietnam. So there's a lot of merit to the advice of the Founders and following the Constitution. And my argument is that we shouldn't go to war so carelessly, because when we do, the wars don't end."

Which led to a follow-up question from Fox newsman Wendell Goler -- "Congressman, you don't think that changed with the 9/11 attack, sir?"

Paul: "What changed?"

Goler: "The non-interventionist policies."

Paul: "No, non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attacked us because we'd been over there, we'd been bombing Iraq for 10 years, we've been in the Middle East. I think Ronald Reagan was right, we don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican, we're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us."

Golen: "Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?"

Paul: "I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reasons they did it, and they are delighted that we're over there because Osama bin Laden has said, I'm glad you're over on our sand because we can target you so much easier. They've already now, since that time, have killed 3,400 of our men and I don't think it was necessary."

To which Rudy Giuliani responded: "That's really an extraordinary statement, an extraordinary statement. As someone who lived through the attack on Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11" (followed by the biggest applause of the night, all but sealing the pundits' later verdict that Giuliani won the debate).

But lost amid the gnashing of teeth over Paul's suggestion that al Qaeda was justified in slaughtering 3,000 Americans was the kernel of truth at the heart of his remarks -- the undeniable connection between Iraq and al Qaeda's motivation for the 9/11 attack.

For years now we have heard the singsong of a claim, mainly from the Left but also from conservative isolationists like Paul and Pat Buchanan, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. To the extent that Iraq was not involved in the planning and execution of the attack, this remains a plausible assertion due to lack of evidence to the contrary (that such a link may eventually be proven, however, would not surprise me).

But this assertion has morphed into something entirely different -- that Iraq had nothing remotely to do with al Qaeda's motivation for attacking the US -- and this claim is not only false, but deceitful. In fact, US and United Nation policies toward Iraq -- yes, United Nations -- constituted two of the three reasons cited by bin Laden for the 9/11 attack when al-Jazeera broadcast its first post-9/11 video of bin Laden on Oct. 7, 2001, the same day US forces began bombing al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's statement, all of a dozen paragraphs, wasted little time in getting to Iraq -- it's in the fourth paragraph, according to the copy I saved from the New York Times.

"A million innocent children are dying at this time as we speak, killed in Iraq without any guilt," bin Laden said. What he was referring to were economic sanctions against Saddam's Baathist regime -- sanctions imposed by the UN, not US -- for Saddam's refusal to comply with every single one of 16 UN resolutions for him to disarm after the first Gulf War and renounce his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. A war precipitated by Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, followed by a coalition of 30 nations led by the US ousting Iraq from Kuwait -- but not dishonoring the purpose of that coalition and taking ground forces all the way to Baghdad.

Here is how bin Laden ended his statement:
"Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The wind of faith is blowing and the wind of change is blowing to remove evil from the Peninsula of Muhammad, peace be upon him.
"As to America, I say to you and its people a few words: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the armies of infidels depart the land of Muhammad, peace be upon him. God is the greatest and glory be to Islam."

The "evil" that bin Laden refers to on the "Peninsula of Muhammad"? American military forces in Saudi Arabia -- sent there at the invitation of the Saudi government after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. Forces that remained in Saudi Arabia, as requested by the Saudi government, for the decade to follow -- due to Saddam's continued defiance to disarm in good faith.

As for Paul's claim that we'd been "bombing Iraq for 10 years," he was conspicuously negligent in elaborating. Allow me to fill in the gaps. Shortly after the first Gulf War, and in a move to prevent Saddam from slaughtering thousands more Kurds and Shiites rising up against him, no-fly zones were imposed over huge swaths of north and south Iraq -- by the US, Great Britain and -- are you sitting down for this? -- France -- without -- still sitting down? -- UN authorization.

Two years after the first Gulf War, then-President Bill Clinton ordered aerial attacks against Saddam's regime after evidence was uncovered of an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait.

In December 1998, Clinton ordered another attack on Saddam's regime one month after UN weapons inspectors were ousted from Iraq -- an absence that remained right through 9/11 and leading up to the months before the second war. The reason many people don't remember the four-day Desert Fox campaign? It neatly coincided with the House vote to impeach Clinton.

I have nothing but respect for the strength of character exhibited by Giuliani on 9/11, and for Giuliani's resolve in the difficult weeks and months followed. And Giuliani's anger toward Paul's suggestion that America had it coming on 9/11 is entirely justified.

But I find it disheartening that Giuliani, of all people, a man nearly murdered by al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001 and who may well become our next president, is oblivious to the obvious role that Iraq played in al Qaeda's rationale for attacking us.

Reviving the Bubba Doctrine

Revisiting Hillary Clinton's response to the debate question last month on how she would respond to an al-Qaeda attack on American cities -- what Clinton suggested sounded vaguely familiar, as if we'd done this before. In fact, we have, and with disastrous consequences.
First, Clinton's response:

"Well again, having been a senator during 9/11, I understand very well the extraordinary horror of that kind of an attack and the impact that it has, far beyond those who are directly affected. I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate. If we are attacked, and we can determine who was behind that attack, and if there were nations that supported or gave material aid to those who attacked us, I believe we should quickly respond.

"Now that doesn't mean we go looking for other fights," Clinton went on to say. "You know, I supported President Bush when he went after al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. And then when he decided to divert attention to Iraq, it was not a decision that I would have made had I been president because we still haven't found bin Laden. So let's focus on those who have attacked us and do everything we can to destroy them."

In other words, do exactly what Bill Clinton did in response to the bombings of two American embassies in Africa in August 1998. After quickly determining that al Qaeda was responsible, then-President Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks against al Qaeda targets in Sudan and Afghanistan two weeks after the bombings -- followed by withering criticism that Clinton was engaged in "wag the dog" chicanery to divert attention from the Lewinsky scandal.

And what happened after the cruise missile attacks ...? Nothing much, at least for the remainder of Clinton's lame-duck, post-impeachment presidency. Come to think of it, Saddam Hussein booted UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq a few months after the embassy bombings, not that Iraq and al Qaeda had anything remotely to do with one another, as we've heard claimed ad infinitum ad nauseum for years now. Clinton responsed to Hussein's ouster of weapons inspectors by lobbing cruise missiles into Iraq, postponing the congressional vote on his impeachment for a day, before the status quo of American timidity was quickly restored.

Then in October 2000, al Qaeda fanatics struck at the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 American sailors, followed by Clinton doing ... nothing. All the while, al Qaeda grew emboldened by the specter of a paper tiger worried about looking like it was looking for a fight.

What was it that line from Trotsky? You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

Of politicians and perfection

From last night's "60 Minutes" segment on Mitt Romney, as reported by Mike Wallace --

Wallace: "The rap on you, of course, is that you are too smooth, too handsome, too polished. Are you really known as 'Matinee Mitt' ...?"
Romney: "That's the rap on you, Mike ..."
Wallace: "No, no, no ..."
Romney: "... Too smooth, too polished ..."

Then, as to be expected, the rapid-fire edit away from the conversation before the inevitable smile from Romney to show he was having a little fun at Wallace's expense. When I first saw the exchange in the previews that open the show, I thought Romney was criticizing the media, as epitomized by Wallace. It wasn't until I watched the actual segment that I realized Romney was being irreverent, just as he'd done when Jay Leno posed a similar question on "The Tonight Show."

The "too smooth, too polished, too handsome" rap could also be leveled at another presidential contender from Massachusetts, albeit one from decades ago -- John F. Kennedy. Difference being, Kennedy was a Democrat, though I doubt he'd be one today.

Smooth, polished and handsome isn't acceptable in actual politicians running for president, only for a long-dead icon who provided the template.

Romney on a roll

Cover of Time magazine and an interview with Mike Wallace on tomorrow night's "60 Minutes," both on the heels of Mitt Romney's solid performance in last week's Republican debate.

What we are seeing is belated recognition by the mainstream media that Romney is a candidate to be reckoned with. Eventual recognition to follow that he's the most formidable presidential contender since Clinton in 1992.

Somewhere Dan Quayle is smiling

The nation's divorce rate drops to its lowest level since 1970, reports USA Today and numerous other media outlets ...

Unacknowledged birth of punk rock

First encountered this awesome photoshop revisionism of "Sparky" Ruby's decision to off Oswald on national TV in a Missouri poster shop several years ago, but held off due to its steep $10 price tag.

Tip of the hat to fellow Bay State blogger at wavemaker for this one, and for pointing out that the graffiti on the wall behind Oswald was the emblem for the punk band Dead Kennedys.

Still waiting for mainstream media references to "far left"

From a Reuters story out of Paris yesterday on demonstrations and arrests following the victory of conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy --

"Some 300 to 400 demonstrators gathered on the Boulevard St-Michel in the Latin Quarter of Paris," writes Reuters' Gerard Bon, "ostensibly to protest against a march by far-right supporters."For the uninitiated, allow this former left-winger to translate -- "far-right" is code for "Nazi," invariably tossed about in abundant ignorance that the Nazis were national socialists. The demonstrators, Bon writes, shouted slogans like "Sarko fascist! The people will have your hide" and "Police everywhere, justice nowhere."

The French have hardly stopped counting the votes in Sarkozy's impressive victory and his more unhinged critics are already dragging out that smoldy standby of the intellectually barren, "fascist," as if Sarkozy's proposal to lengthen the work week for a stagnant French economy is akin to tossing Jews in ovens.