The Inquisition continues and Bob Woodward’s remarks that he talked to Scooter Libby subsequent to the Judy Miller/Libby conversations and Libby said nothing to Woodward about Plame DO NOT FIT THE PRE-SCRIPTED SHOW-TRIAL ceremony and Woodward is now being revealed as an enemy of PURGE-TRIAL PROTOCOL and therefore subject to intense scrutiny by the MSM and his openly jealous peers at the WaPo.
Of course, Woodward is peerless at the Washington Post and, with his common-sense perspective, thought the entire Wilson/Plame imbroglio a stink-bomb concocted by the Elders of the MSM to cripple the Bush Administration. Their noisy attacks on Woodward are chiefly due to the exalted position Woodward holds in the media hierarchy, where he is not just another ink-stained slave chained to the oars of liberal attack galleys.
Woodward has committed the cardinal sin of regarding the inside-the-Beltway gotcha games as the trivial coups-de-pouce that they are---exercises in the triumph of process over substance that the MSM excel in drawing out indefinitely. Coldheartedtruth explains the black art of eliciting obstruction of justice and perjury that Woodward rightly regarded as malicious mischief.
Woodward’s impregnable high status in the authorial hierarchy has earned the contempt of liberal acolytes like David Broder, Howie Kurtz, and Tim Russert, who are motivated by jealousy of his own editorial freedom, while their bosses keep their noses close to that liberal stone that grinds exceeding small.
Nora Ephron, has a tongue-in-cheek damned-by-faint-praise piece in the HuffnPuffPost that has an interesting perspective---Woodward as the finally clueless [about Watergate, no less] Theodore H. White.
However, Nora misses the comparison---Watergate was a major series of crimes, Plamegate is a trumped-up tempest in a teapot. Indeed, Saddam may have been angling for yellowcake, but the documents Wilson inspected were phony. The British MI-6 contend that the jury is still out on the larger question: would Saddam have attempted an Osirak II had UN Sanctions been largely lifted as they were about to be? Yes, it may have taken a while, but the 1999 visit to Niger of Saddam’s Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican did not concern Papal policies toward Sub-Saharan Africa!
Trying to claim Plame was outed has already been discredited---she had been overt for more than five years and was not covered under the applying statute. Therefore, the entire Special Counsel role has been to prosecute suspected White House operatives for what?
Woodward correctly has the perspective that Ephron misses----the entire Plame affair is a molehill elaborately and with great exertion being turned into a mountain by the MSM and their Masters in the Legal Skullduggery Brigade----the Dems hoping to catch mistakes in the rubrics of ritualized self-examination a Special Prosecutor demands of witnesses.
These mistakes in memory or interpretation are morphed into crimes, and presto! Process has once again triumphed over substance and our progress toward a nanny-state proceeds apace.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Gotcha Games Continue
Jim Van Der Hei has an interesting Washington Post article concerning Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s latest Grand Jury Probe. SP Fitz will interview Time Reporter Viveca Novak under oath; the Rove people think that her testimony will exonerate Karl.
Why? My guess is that Viveca talked to Karl Rove independently of her Time colleague Matt Cooper, who originally got Rove in dutch by saying that Rove mentioned Plame as a CIA asset. Rove had originally testified that he had not mentioned Plame to Cooper, but a Rove e-mail contemporaneous with the original Cooper/Rove conversation mentions that the Plame subject had come up. Thus Karl seemed to have mis-stated his conversation with Cooper. Rove says that he “forgot” the original conversation with Cooper about Plame and when he did have a hidden memory pop back up, Karl says that Cooper had mentioned that Plame was CIA and Rove said “I heard that too.” "Ah, what a tangled web we weave......."
My hunch is that Viveca Novak talked with Rove about Wilson subsequent to the Rove/Cooper conversation and Rove did not bring up anything about Amb. Wilson’s wife being in the CIA. Thus it is the case of the dog that did not bark. Therefore, Rove's subsequent silence about Plame could plausibly mean there was no campaign to smear Wilson, just an attempt to give another side to the story.
This case for exoneration of Rove will go down hard with the hard-core Left, which simply wants payback for what Ken Starr did to Clinton. The Democrats want a re-borking to occur and if they can’t stop Alito, their no-machine will take no prisoners among White House operatives.
Why? My guess is that Viveca talked to Karl Rove independently of her Time colleague Matt Cooper, who originally got Rove in dutch by saying that Rove mentioned Plame as a CIA asset. Rove had originally testified that he had not mentioned Plame to Cooper, but a Rove e-mail contemporaneous with the original Cooper/Rove conversation mentions that the Plame subject had come up. Thus Karl seemed to have mis-stated his conversation with Cooper. Rove says that he “forgot” the original conversation with Cooper about Plame and when he did have a hidden memory pop back up, Karl says that Cooper had mentioned that Plame was CIA and Rove said “I heard that too.” "Ah, what a tangled web we weave......."
My hunch is that Viveca Novak talked with Rove about Wilson subsequent to the Rove/Cooper conversation and Rove did not bring up anything about Amb. Wilson’s wife being in the CIA. Thus it is the case of the dog that did not bark. Therefore, Rove's subsequent silence about Plame could plausibly mean there was no campaign to smear Wilson, just an attempt to give another side to the story.
This case for exoneration of Rove will go down hard with the hard-core Left, which simply wants payback for what Ken Starr did to Clinton. The Democrats want a re-borking to occur and if they can’t stop Alito, their no-machine will take no prisoners among White House operatives.
Monday, November 28, 2005
New Poll suggests muting war criticism
The Washington Post has an article concerning a poll about Vice President Cheney’s recent suggestion that criticism of the administration's war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. Democrats had hinted that Cheney was raising the ante in the noisy dialogue concerning the war when he noted that insurgents were heartened by anti-war statements in the US media, implying that opposition to the war puts our men on the ground in Iraq in further peril. Recent polls showing increased opposition to the war caused some media observers to infer that most Americans might regard Cheney’s remarks as hitting below the belt
Surprisingly, the Post now writes that “a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point.” The Post’s article linked above says that “70% of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt ‘a lot,’ according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.”
If accurate, this poll would belie the recent Op-Ed estimates that a “tipping point” in American opinion has been reached where support across the board for the Iraq war was diminishing rapidly. However much a large part of the American public now believes the war may have been a mistake based on grossly inaccurate intelligence, the R T Strategies poll may indicate that a similar majority appears to believe that an early exit from this dreary conflict without some sort of viable Iraqi political/military governance firmly in place would also be a mistake.
The upcoming elections in Iraq December 15th should be the next step demonstrating that the Iraqis are making progress forming a government along with an Iraqi military that can protect that government. However, infighting and messy ethnic backstabbing may continue after the upcoming elections, and there is an end to the patience of the American public with the overall ineffective Bush management of our civilian presence in Iraq.
The RT Strategies poll should keep centrist Democrats like Hillary Clinton and even the wobbly Joe Biden from making a Murtha-like call for rapid withdrawal, at least until the early months of 2006. But if the insurrection continues to bubble and simmer, the mid-term elections next November may become a belated referendum on staying the course.
And if the Democrats make electoral gains next Fall, the stage will be set for a complete reevaluation of America’s foreign relations in the 2008 election for President, and perhaps at that time, a ”tipping point” might be in the works.
Surprisingly, the Post now writes that “a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point.” The Post’s article linked above says that “70% of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt ‘a lot,’ according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.”
If accurate, this poll would belie the recent Op-Ed estimates that a “tipping point” in American opinion has been reached where support across the board for the Iraq war was diminishing rapidly. However much a large part of the American public now believes the war may have been a mistake based on grossly inaccurate intelligence, the R T Strategies poll may indicate that a similar majority appears to believe that an early exit from this dreary conflict without some sort of viable Iraqi political/military governance firmly in place would also be a mistake.
The upcoming elections in Iraq December 15th should be the next step demonstrating that the Iraqis are making progress forming a government along with an Iraqi military that can protect that government. However, infighting and messy ethnic backstabbing may continue after the upcoming elections, and there is an end to the patience of the American public with the overall ineffective Bush management of our civilian presence in Iraq.
The RT Strategies poll should keep centrist Democrats like Hillary Clinton and even the wobbly Joe Biden from making a Murtha-like call for rapid withdrawal, at least until the early months of 2006. But if the insurrection continues to bubble and simmer, the mid-term elections next November may become a belated referendum on staying the course.
And if the Democrats make electoral gains next Fall, the stage will be set for a complete reevaluation of America’s foreign relations in the 2008 election for President, and perhaps at that time, a ”tipping point” might be in the works.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Tom Wolfe on today's campus
Tom Wolfe's "I am Charlotte Simmons" appears unreal until you remember how old Tom is and realize that he has redone, mutatis mutandis, Terry Southern's breakthrough 60's novel Candy, itself a succes de scandale rewrite of Voltaire's Candide. Candy was a virginal young girl from the Arcadia of Wisconsin searching sincerely for the meaning of life who runs into a series of sexual escapades that educate her socially. Ultimately turned into an awful movie with Brando and a long-forgotten Swedish girl-child, Candy was Southern's coming-of-moral-age novel. Southern also wrote the scripts for "Dr. Strangelove," "Easy Rider," and is credited with inventing the term "hippie." Southern's lavish use of profanity was another of his cutting-edge contributions that eventually became commonplace.
Both Candy and Charlotte [and Candide] are constructs rather than characters, mannequins for a maestro of the pen. Like Candy, Charlotte goes from an Eden to Sodom/Gomorrah in this novel written forty years later and updated from Candy only with new varieties of human furniture, a heroine with a genius IQ, and, of course, the Dupont/Duke [remember Wolfe`s southern ruts, as Charlotte would say] setting for the bacchanalia.
Very much of the novel just rings wrong. How she gets a tete-a-tete with a Nobel Prize winning lecturer [an oxymoron in itself, since T.A.s do all the lectures and you are lucky to ever get a meeting with a distinguished prize-winning professor if you are a SENIOR] strains the suspension-of-disbelief barrier. Indeed, the mechanics Wolfe inserts into this Boschian panorama his plot demands requires deleting much of the rich environment of a top university and amping up the frat/jock/geek/academicide enormities his Olive Oyl protaganist confronts.
The characters are portrayed as relentlessly insincere, with Adam's mental gymnastics exclusively devoted to how to keep Charlotte's attention during the Milennial Mutant sessions. I could go on with cavils.
However, Wolfe's cardinal moral in this morality play is that, like the cats who have been the "controls" of the sex-crazed amygdalectomized thirty felines of the neuroscientist's Nobel experiment[see first two pages], every player in this academic/athletic/social world gets reduced to the lowest common denominator of the environment, sucked netherward until each hits bottom, all unredeemed by any epiphanies or insights.
This novel does demonstrate, however, that Wolfe still remains one of the most ambitious and fearless commentators of our Age of Decline. I only wish that he had a Maxwell Perkins to shave a couple of hundred pages off his 700 page manuscript and resolve a few questions left hanging in the end. But Wolf might have resolved Charlotte's quandary more succinctly had he noted that, like the earlier North Carolina native "Thomas" Wolfe in the title of his posthumous novel, "you can't go home again."
Both Candy and Charlotte [and Candide] are constructs rather than characters, mannequins for a maestro of the pen. Like Candy, Charlotte goes from an Eden to Sodom/Gomorrah in this novel written forty years later and updated from Candy only with new varieties of human furniture, a heroine with a genius IQ, and, of course, the Dupont/Duke [remember Wolfe`s southern ruts, as Charlotte would say] setting for the bacchanalia.
Very much of the novel just rings wrong. How she gets a tete-a-tete with a Nobel Prize winning lecturer [an oxymoron in itself, since T.A.s do all the lectures and you are lucky to ever get a meeting with a distinguished prize-winning professor if you are a SENIOR] strains the suspension-of-disbelief barrier. Indeed, the mechanics Wolfe inserts into this Boschian panorama his plot demands requires deleting much of the rich environment of a top university and amping up the frat/jock/geek/academicide enormities his Olive Oyl protaganist confronts.
The characters are portrayed as relentlessly insincere, with Adam's mental gymnastics exclusively devoted to how to keep Charlotte's attention during the Milennial Mutant sessions. I could go on with cavils.
However, Wolfe's cardinal moral in this morality play is that, like the cats who have been the "controls" of the sex-crazed amygdalectomized thirty felines of the neuroscientist's Nobel experiment[see first two pages], every player in this academic/athletic/social world gets reduced to the lowest common denominator of the environment, sucked netherward until each hits bottom, all unredeemed by any epiphanies or insights.
This novel does demonstrate, however, that Wolfe still remains one of the most ambitious and fearless commentators of our Age of Decline. I only wish that he had a Maxwell Perkins to shave a couple of hundred pages off his 700 page manuscript and resolve a few questions left hanging in the end. But Wolf might have resolved Charlotte's quandary more succinctly had he noted that, like the earlier North Carolina native "Thomas" Wolfe in the title of his posthumous novel, "you can't go home again."
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Hitchens taps Murtha on wrist
Christopher Hitchens raps Murtha for being "honorable, but simple-minded" while at the same time excoriating White House spokesman McClellan for comparing Murtha to traitor-slob Michael Moore.
BTW, now that GM is closing its last facilities in Flint, Mich where excrescence Moore originated, is this specimen of an eating disorder going back to look for the GM Chairman again?
However, Hitchens himself makes a simple point; namely, let's have a debate about Iraq. It was amusing to hear the whining hysterics on the Dem side of the House Chamber, some of them female but all of them lactating, braying that the vote would stifle debate on the war.
Actually, a vote would enable those Dems with backbones to register their disapproval of the war, after whatever partisan remarks were exchanged in the guise of a "debate" on the war issue.
Three such Dems were found, one of them my own Congressman from S. Florida. I respect him for at least standing up for the principles he has espoused.
The rest of the morally bankrupt crew of degenerates on the left voted FOR the war, claiming that it was all a stunt.
As long as Pelosi in the House, and Reid in the Senate, are the presiding Dems, the Republicans won't have much to worry about in 2006---maybe a few seats on the margins in both Houses.
Hitchens ends his enlightened and enlightening Slate post by noting that the Dems are blindly espousing the isolationist creed of Lindburgh and Sen. Borah in the face of a real threat to American security and American Democracy in the longer haul. The shortsighted gotcha-gang are just discrediting themselves by failing to have any sort of alternate strategy to defeat or diminish Islamic Radicals.
The ostrich-like posture of Charlatan Chirac didn't work, but that won't stop hopeless recidivist Dems in Congress from trying the same tack.
As Dr. Zawahiri MD says of the USA, "God has blessed us by creating the Americans as the most cowardly of opponents." Dr. Z must be thinking of the Democrats.
BTW, now that GM is closing its last facilities in Flint, Mich where excrescence Moore originated, is this specimen of an eating disorder going back to look for the GM Chairman again?
However, Hitchens himself makes a simple point; namely, let's have a debate about Iraq. It was amusing to hear the whining hysterics on the Dem side of the House Chamber, some of them female but all of them lactating, braying that the vote would stifle debate on the war.
Actually, a vote would enable those Dems with backbones to register their disapproval of the war, after whatever partisan remarks were exchanged in the guise of a "debate" on the war issue.
Three such Dems were found, one of them my own Congressman from S. Florida. I respect him for at least standing up for the principles he has espoused.
The rest of the morally bankrupt crew of degenerates on the left voted FOR the war, claiming that it was all a stunt.
As long as Pelosi in the House, and Reid in the Senate, are the presiding Dems, the Republicans won't have much to worry about in 2006---maybe a few seats on the margins in both Houses.
Hitchens ends his enlightened and enlightening Slate post by noting that the Dems are blindly espousing the isolationist creed of Lindburgh and Sen. Borah in the face of a real threat to American security and American Democracy in the longer haul. The shortsighted gotcha-gang are just discrediting themselves by failing to have any sort of alternate strategy to defeat or diminish Islamic Radicals.
The ostrich-like posture of Charlatan Chirac didn't work, but that won't stop hopeless recidivist Dems in Congress from trying the same tack.
As Dr. Zawahiri MD says of the USA, "God has blessed us by creating the Americans as the most cowardly of opponents." Dr. Z must be thinking of the Democrats.
Ralph Peters in NY Post
Ralph Peters has a column in the New York Post replete with common sense and political wisdom. I don't expect the hysteria crowd on the left to concur, but they must admit that walking away from a war means that consequences ensue, many of them unintended.
I don't think high-candlepower thinkers like Reid and Pelosi GET it, though!
I don't think high-candlepower thinkers like Reid and Pelosi GET it, though!
QUIT. It’s that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.
Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can’t win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That’s precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we’ve made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.
Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don’t mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round.
Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. After all, one way to create the kind of disaffection in the ranks that the Dems’ leaders yearn to see is to tell our troops on the battlefield that they’re risking their lives for nothing, we’re throwing the game.
Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they’ll have to leave their families and go back to war again. Ignore the progress on the ground, the squeezing of the insurgency’s last strongholds into the badlands on the Syrian border. Blow off the successive Iraqi elections and the astonishing cooperation we’ve seen between age-old enemies as they struggle to form a decent government.
Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren’t anomalies — that’s what Americans do.
While we’re at it, let’s just print up recruiting posters for the terrorists, informing the youth of the Middle East that Americans are cowards who can be attacked with impunity.
Whatever you do, don’t talk about any possible consequences. Focus on the moment — and the next round of U.S. elections. Just make political points. After all, those dead American soldiers and Marines don’t matter — they didn’t go to Ivy League schools. (Besides, most would’ve voted Republican had they lived.)
America’s security? Hah! As long as the upcoming elections show Democratic gains, let the terrorist threat explode. So what if hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners might die in a regional war? So what if violent fundamentalism gets a shot of steroids? So what if we make Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the most successful Arab of the past 500 years?
For God’s sake, don’t talk about democracy in the Middle East. After all, democracy wasn’t much fun for the Dems in 2000 or 2004. Why support it overseas, when it’s been so disappointing at home?
Human rights? Oh, dear. Human rights are for rich white people who live in Malibu. Unless you can use the issue to whack Republicans. Otherwise, brown, black or yellow people can die by the millions. Dean, Reid & Pelosi, LLC, won’t say, “Boo!”
You’ve got to understand, my fellow citizens: None of this matters. And you don’t matter, either. All that matters is scoring political points. Let the world burn. Let the massacres run on. Let the terrorists acquire WMD. Just give the Bush administration a big black eye and we’ll call that a win.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Mathews' Perspectivism in Canada
MSNBC ratings-challenged ranting and shouting punditChris Mathews told a sympathetic audience in the People's Republic of Canada that:
"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing,"
"If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different perspective."
The article characterizes the rest of Mathews' talk as "Bush squandered an opportunity to unite the world against terrorism and instead made decisions that have built up worldwide animosity against his administration."
Yeah, Chris, those terrorist suicide bombers aren't evil, "they just have a different perspective."
Of course, that kind of bantamweight relativism goes down well in a country which has abdicated any serious role in international relations---outside of a UN presence among the kleptocrats of that disorganized muddle. One of that country's senior diplomats, a fellow named Armstrong, recently got figuratively frog-marched out of the august corridors of Turtle Bay for incompetence and peculation far beyond the UN norm.
Coincidentally, the UN voted Canada the world's most pleasant habitat for those who want to merely exist, or some such award.
Yes, Mathews overlooks or forgets that France had agreed to support an invasion of Iraq under UN auspices and then famously blindsided Colin Powell when brilliantined stick-insect de Villepin held a press conference just before the Security Council meeting and denounced the American Plan and said that Frogland would oppose it by all means at its disposal.
Of course, Mathews doesn't know or care that there is evidence of a pipeline from Saddam through his half-brother Ambassador to the UN in Geneva to the French elitist poofs of lots of untraceable bank deposits, gold in diplomatic pouches, and other goods in return for Charlatan-in-Chief Chirac's support. Saddam had been one of Chirac's mentors ever since his visit to France in the '70s when Junior Minister Shh-iraq was his guide to nuclear installations in France.
Of course, the French were building a nuclear reactor in Iraq, the famous Osirak facility that the prescient Israelis exploded to smithereens in 1981.
All that perspective is beyond a cheap-shot artist like Mathews, who famously did not attend college, but was picked up by Tip O'Neill when noticed as a member of the Capitol Police force in DC.
To show his wide intellectual gravitas, Mathews had a column in that highbrow trend-setter and opinion molder the S.F. Chronicle, a paper whose importance on the US scene is demonstrated by its 16% subscription loss over the last reporting period.
There was a "robust discussion" of what we were doing after 9/11, Chris, you just weren't a part of it.
What you are a part of is the dwindling band of partisan cheap-shotters whose alignment with leftist publications overseas and in the Great White North keeps any traction from developing for support of US soldiers in Iraq.
"No fault on the Left" is the old Marxist mantra and psychological warfare on the Left has contributed to the hemorrhaging of support for the War in Iraq.
Dr. Zawahiri sent a letter from Pakistan intercepted by US intel to his Al-Qaeda colleagues in the Middle East that began: "God in his mercy has created no more cowardly race than the Americans who oppose us in our drive toward a Khalifate."
Zawahiri is only half right. Mathews and his cohort of cowards fits Dr. Z's portrait, but luckily we have about 200 million vertebrates in the US and only 100 million noisy degenerates without a notochord.
And next time you lactate in public, Chris, do it in the USA!
"The period between 9/11 and Iraq was not a good time for America. There wasn't a robust discussion of what we were doing,"
"If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different perspective."
The article characterizes the rest of Mathews' talk as "Bush squandered an opportunity to unite the world against terrorism and instead made decisions that have built up worldwide animosity against his administration."
Yeah, Chris, those terrorist suicide bombers aren't evil, "they just have a different perspective."
Of course, that kind of bantamweight relativism goes down well in a country which has abdicated any serious role in international relations---outside of a UN presence among the kleptocrats of that disorganized muddle. One of that country's senior diplomats, a fellow named Armstrong, recently got figuratively frog-marched out of the august corridors of Turtle Bay for incompetence and peculation far beyond the UN norm.
Coincidentally, the UN voted Canada the world's most pleasant habitat for those who want to merely exist, or some such award.
Yes, Mathews overlooks or forgets that France had agreed to support an invasion of Iraq under UN auspices and then famously blindsided Colin Powell when brilliantined stick-insect de Villepin held a press conference just before the Security Council meeting and denounced the American Plan and said that Frogland would oppose it by all means at its disposal.
Of course, Mathews doesn't know or care that there is evidence of a pipeline from Saddam through his half-brother Ambassador to the UN in Geneva to the French elitist poofs of lots of untraceable bank deposits, gold in diplomatic pouches, and other goods in return for Charlatan-in-Chief Chirac's support. Saddam had been one of Chirac's mentors ever since his visit to France in the '70s when Junior Minister Shh-iraq was his guide to nuclear installations in France.
Of course, the French were building a nuclear reactor in Iraq, the famous Osirak facility that the prescient Israelis exploded to smithereens in 1981.
All that perspective is beyond a cheap-shot artist like Mathews, who famously did not attend college, but was picked up by Tip O'Neill when noticed as a member of the Capitol Police force in DC.
To show his wide intellectual gravitas, Mathews had a column in that highbrow trend-setter and opinion molder the S.F. Chronicle, a paper whose importance on the US scene is demonstrated by its 16% subscription loss over the last reporting period.
There was a "robust discussion" of what we were doing after 9/11, Chris, you just weren't a part of it.
What you are a part of is the dwindling band of partisan cheap-shotters whose alignment with leftist publications overseas and in the Great White North keeps any traction from developing for support of US soldiers in Iraq.
"No fault on the Left" is the old Marxist mantra and psychological warfare on the Left has contributed to the hemorrhaging of support for the War in Iraq.
Dr. Zawahiri sent a letter from Pakistan intercepted by US intel to his Al-Qaeda colleagues in the Middle East that began: "God in his mercy has created no more cowardly race than the Americans who oppose us in our drive toward a Khalifate."
Zawahiri is only half right. Mathews and his cohort of cowards fits Dr. Z's portrait, but luckily we have about 200 million vertebrates in the US and only 100 million noisy degenerates without a notochord.
And next time you lactate in public, Chris, do it in the USA!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Woodward and Ombudsperson
The Washington Post's ombudsmanwrote an article in the Sunday Post giving Bob Woodward a pretty soft-spoken reprimand on keeping a source on Plamegate to himself. An obscenity-spewing organ of the left called Americablog excoriates the Post and the ombudsman for not hewing to the left's interpretation of this tempest in a teapot, namely that it is, in the words of a hypermanic scribbler at Vanity Fair named Wolf, one of the most important stories of the century.
But the funhouse mirror journalists of the left just don't get it; no law was broken on the face of it, and this is just another case of looking for something to indict, since the Democrats can't defeat the Republicans at the ballot box.
So Tom DeLay gets a [probably well-deserved] comeuppance with a flawed indictment by a Harris County functionary which keeps DeLay from guiding the House Republicans to legislative victories.
And the chief target of this squalid little frame-up concerning a CIA officer and her narcissistic hubby has been Karl Rove.
You see, the Dems are the party of lawyers and they discovered during the ghastly over-lawyered Clinton Administration where both Bill and his were JD's that what you can't win from honest elections can be manipulated by indictments, activist judges, and lawyers who treat national security issues as law and order problems [Jamie Gorelick made chasing down terrorists almost impossible during her tenure at the DOJ].
Of course, with Whitewater Clinton discovered that Special Prosecutors work both ways. Ken Starr is still a bee in Bill's bonnet, judging from recent remarks.
Woodward has a wide perspective down the years, and his 1979 book The Brethren, written with Scott Armstrong, remains the best study ever of a sitting Supreme Court. Woodward has a strong Midwestern commonsensical view of the shenanigans of the anarcho-nihilists on the left. He kept quiet because he believes, rightly, that the whole Plame fiasco is a sham and a political stunt designed to play the only game the substance-challenged Democrats can compete in, the use and abuse of process.
But the funhouse mirror journalists of the left just don't get it; no law was broken on the face of it, and this is just another case of looking for something to indict, since the Democrats can't defeat the Republicans at the ballot box.
So Tom DeLay gets a [probably well-deserved] comeuppance with a flawed indictment by a Harris County functionary which keeps DeLay from guiding the House Republicans to legislative victories.
And the chief target of this squalid little frame-up concerning a CIA officer and her narcissistic hubby has been Karl Rove.
You see, the Dems are the party of lawyers and they discovered during the ghastly over-lawyered Clinton Administration where both Bill and his were JD's that what you can't win from honest elections can be manipulated by indictments, activist judges, and lawyers who treat national security issues as law and order problems [Jamie Gorelick made chasing down terrorists almost impossible during her tenure at the DOJ].
Of course, with Whitewater Clinton discovered that Special Prosecutors work both ways. Ken Starr is still a bee in Bill's bonnet, judging from recent remarks.
Woodward has a wide perspective down the years, and his 1979 book The Brethren, written with Scott Armstrong, remains the best study ever of a sitting Supreme Court. Woodward has a strong Midwestern commonsensical view of the shenanigans of the anarcho-nihilists on the left. He kept quiet because he believes, rightly, that the whole Plame fiasco is a sham and a political stunt designed to play the only game the substance-challenged Democrats can compete in, the use and abuse of process.
Woodward and Hadley?
Woodward and Hadley communicated in June about Plame's role in sending her hubby on the snipe hunt to Niger before Lewis Libby mentioned her to several reporters in July, 2003, according to The Times of London, still owned by Rupert Murdoch by my understanding.
The reason I mention Murdoch is that I suspect that the Dark Lord of the Conservative Press may have an interest in keeping the story simmering. The explanation of Maguire and Newsweek which I agree with is that Richard Armitage, Undersecretary of State and longtime Woodward source, may have mentioned this factoid to Woodward before it became the latest shout-out from the nitrous-oxide giddy-freaks on the Left [You know who you are, Barbra!].
Armitage simply doesn't fit the bill as a Lord Valdemort of the Right, epitomized by Karl Rove and his supporting cast of neo-con hench-people. Indeed, Armitage has OPPOSED much of the empire-building engineered by Doug Feith of the shadow-CIA in the Pentagon and Dick Armitage supported Colin Powell in Powell's good soldier policies---these two gentlemen are not the target of the substance-abusing political commissars pushing a conspiracy agenda in Plamegate.
No, Armitage just won't do as Woodward's source.
Not for the Hollyweird Left and perhaps not for the Murdoch myrmidons on the Right. Rupert may have several reasons to keep the pot boiling. First, any dust-up that makes the Left look like it's overreaching and perhaps foolish pleases the Foxy Right. The Plame Affair is just too tattered and it now looks a bit like the rabid MSM is pushing a peanut with its nose down the middle of the street. For instance, Plame herself had not been under covert cover for more than five years, which means she is not covered by the statute. Libby got mousetrapped by an overzealous Torquemada, not nailed in a conspiracy to defame egregious showboat Joe Wilson.
Second, keeping Fitzgerald on an eternal quest allows the President his "I won't comment on an ongoing investigation" standard line.
Third, the shelf life of these perennial snipe hunts is shorter than the American public's support for any military conflict the US gets into---about two years. So the Democrats may have to look for another process-oriented imbroglio to invent and propagate, much as they did with the Wilson/Plame Affair. There are plenty of narcissistic careerist spotlight seekers like Richard Clarke and Joseph Wilson just waiting in the wings to strut out with their own process horror story. [The Democrats can't have a scandal on substance since their philosophy abhors principles based on permanent values.]
Anyhow, Hadley is enjoying his fifteen minutes so far and may extend them, much as Wilson has as he now embarks on speaking tours and is doubtless negotiating a book deal. Ski bum, druggie, diplomat, much-married, the Wilson saga begs to be told.
Another reason the Murdoch minions may be pushing forward alternate sources for Woodward lies in keeping the easily-distracted Dems eyes off the ball, which of course is the Alito nomination. Although even the Democrats may be realizing that their histrionic hysterics could be becoming a bit tedious as the country begins to tire of spasms from the Left.
The reason I mention Murdoch is that I suspect that the Dark Lord of the Conservative Press may have an interest in keeping the story simmering. The explanation of Maguire and Newsweek which I agree with is that Richard Armitage, Undersecretary of State and longtime Woodward source, may have mentioned this factoid to Woodward before it became the latest shout-out from the nitrous-oxide giddy-freaks on the Left [You know who you are, Barbra!].
Armitage simply doesn't fit the bill as a Lord Valdemort of the Right, epitomized by Karl Rove and his supporting cast of neo-con hench-people. Indeed, Armitage has OPPOSED much of the empire-building engineered by Doug Feith of the shadow-CIA in the Pentagon and Dick Armitage supported Colin Powell in Powell's good soldier policies---these two gentlemen are not the target of the substance-abusing political commissars pushing a conspiracy agenda in Plamegate.
No, Armitage just won't do as Woodward's source.
Not for the Hollyweird Left and perhaps not for the Murdoch myrmidons on the Right. Rupert may have several reasons to keep the pot boiling. First, any dust-up that makes the Left look like it's overreaching and perhaps foolish pleases the Foxy Right. The Plame Affair is just too tattered and it now looks a bit like the rabid MSM is pushing a peanut with its nose down the middle of the street. For instance, Plame herself had not been under covert cover for more than five years, which means she is not covered by the statute. Libby got mousetrapped by an overzealous Torquemada, not nailed in a conspiracy to defame egregious showboat Joe Wilson.
Second, keeping Fitzgerald on an eternal quest allows the President his "I won't comment on an ongoing investigation" standard line.
Third, the shelf life of these perennial snipe hunts is shorter than the American public's support for any military conflict the US gets into---about two years. So the Democrats may have to look for another process-oriented imbroglio to invent and propagate, much as they did with the Wilson/Plame Affair. There are plenty of narcissistic careerist spotlight seekers like Richard Clarke and Joseph Wilson just waiting in the wings to strut out with their own process horror story. [The Democrats can't have a scandal on substance since their philosophy abhors principles based on permanent values.]
Anyhow, Hadley is enjoying his fifteen minutes so far and may extend them, much as Wilson has as he now embarks on speaking tours and is doubtless negotiating a book deal. Ski bum, druggie, diplomat, much-married, the Wilson saga begs to be told.
Another reason the Murdoch minions may be pushing forward alternate sources for Woodward lies in keeping the easily-distracted Dems eyes off the ball, which of course is the Alito nomination. Although even the Democrats may be realizing that their histrionic hysterics could be becoming a bit tedious as the country begins to tire of spasms from the Left.
Dave's World
Evan Thomas and Michael Isikoff both believe, as I mentioned in a previous posting, that Richard Armitage informed both Robert Novak and Bob Woodward that Plame was Wilson's wife and responsible for sending him to Niger on a uranium yellowcake spook/sleuth expedition.
As is often the case in these super-sleuth cases, Tom Maguire has done the archival dig very well and analyzed the pottery shards so as to reconstruct motive and intent.
Thomas and Isikoff deconstruct the general MSM interpretatioon that the Plame outing was a nasty below-the-belt groin-kick [sort of goes without saying, huh?] to Wilson by evil neo-cons led by the arch-cabalmeister Cheney by noting that Armitage opposed the neo-cons in their headlong rush to battle or at least was a loyal lieutenant to Colin Powell, his sane boss.
So Woodward's interpretation that the whole episode has been hyped beyond any rational boundaries, making a tempest in a teapot into a veritable Katrina, makes more sense than ever and justifies his silence over the leak to him in June about Plame.
Who wants to be dragged into a MSM kangaroo court? Thomas and Isikoff remain rational observers of the Plame stink bomb, realizing that it gives Dems a chance to vent their impotent hysteria and that Woodward sadly but wisely concluded that his silence might obviate an additional media feeding frenzy.
The Left demands Purges much like the Right demands tax cuts----it's part of their DNA as big-government totalitarians. Plamegate like Katrinagate is a scandale du jour that satisfies the MSM run-amok mode. Wonder what/who is next on the menu?
As is often the case in these super-sleuth cases, Tom Maguire has done the archival dig very well and analyzed the pottery shards so as to reconstruct motive and intent.
Thomas and Isikoff deconstruct the general MSM interpretatioon that the Plame outing was a nasty below-the-belt groin-kick [sort of goes without saying, huh?] to Wilson by evil neo-cons led by the arch-cabalmeister Cheney by noting that Armitage opposed the neo-cons in their headlong rush to battle or at least was a loyal lieutenant to Colin Powell, his sane boss.
So Woodward's interpretation that the whole episode has been hyped beyond any rational boundaries, making a tempest in a teapot into a veritable Katrina, makes more sense than ever and justifies his silence over the leak to him in June about Plame.
Who wants to be dragged into a MSM kangaroo court? Thomas and Isikoff remain rational observers of the Plame stink bomb, realizing that it gives Dems a chance to vent their impotent hysteria and that Woodward sadly but wisely concluded that his silence might obviate an additional media feeding frenzy.
The Left demands Purges much like the Right demands tax cuts----it's part of their DNA as big-government totalitarians. Plamegate like Katrinagate is a scandale du jour that satisfies the MSM run-amok mode. Wonder what/who is next on the menu?
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Murtha's canonizing begins
Eleanor Clift is a B-List reliably left Democrat who must now step into the breach and defend what even the Democrats admit is indefensible----a total withdrawal of US troops with a six-month timetable.
Clift admits that Murtha's game plan, if advocated by the Democratic Party, would almost certainly diminish their chances for gains in the 2006 Mid-Term elections, which they need desperately in order to stanch their hemorrhaging of seats in the House and Senate since 1994.
How then to square this circle and dodge accepting the Murtha Plan, which may sink their chances next year?
It looks like the NYT is now scaling back the "total withdrawal in six months" part of Murtha's poorly-designed draft and it looks like the Democrats will be in high dudgeon about the stain on Murtha's reputation that the imputation of "cowardly Marine" imparts.
So the MSM and their DNC editorial advisors must quickly circle their wagons and declare victory.
Dear oh dear, the ink wasn't even dry on Woodward and this had to come up. They were just getting ready for the auto da fe of ol' Bob and now their attention is divided!
Hard to keep straight all the misinformation the MSM puts out. They can't retract the six-month deadline, so they'll have to get their adjuncts over at HufferyPuffery to put their shoulder to the wheel.
With all the dust in the air, maybe it won't be noticed that Murtha has no clothes!
Clift admits that Murtha's game plan, if advocated by the Democratic Party, would almost certainly diminish their chances for gains in the 2006 Mid-Term elections, which they need desperately in order to stanch their hemorrhaging of seats in the House and Senate since 1994.
How then to square this circle and dodge accepting the Murtha Plan, which may sink their chances next year?
It looks like the NYT is now scaling back the "total withdrawal in six months" part of Murtha's poorly-designed draft and it looks like the Democrats will be in high dudgeon about the stain on Murtha's reputation that the imputation of "cowardly Marine" imparts.
So the MSM and their DNC editorial advisors must quickly circle their wagons and declare victory.
Dear oh dear, the ink wasn't even dry on Woodward and this had to come up. They were just getting ready for the auto da fe of ol' Bob and now their attention is divided!
Hard to keep straight all the misinformation the MSM puts out. They can't retract the six-month deadline, so they'll have to get their adjuncts over at HufferyPuffery to put their shoulder to the wheel.
With all the dust in the air, maybe it won't be noticed that Murtha has no clothes!
Murtha and those Swift Boats
An alert blogger named John walks us through the variations of the New York Times lede story on the Murtha auto da fe as his heresy in calling for an immediate withdrawal was scaled back gradually by the DNC overlords until the Times several hours and two changes later meekly bought the Democratic Party line.
Looks like Pinch and Keller and Company are making amends for their Miller apostasy by making a "corrective movement" to reflect the current----and always swiftly moving----heterodoxy of the Party of the Ass.
The "newspaper of record" reflects the Decline of the Left as it europeanizes its mindset to reflect a more submissive America.
Looks like Pinch and Keller and Company are making amends for their Miller apostasy by making a "corrective movement" to reflect the current----and always swiftly moving----heterodoxy of the Party of the Ass.
The "newspaper of record" reflects the Decline of the Left as it europeanizes its mindset to reflect a more submissive America.
Murtha Move Countered 403-3
The Washington Post has an article describing how the verbal crockery flew after plaster-statue Saint Murtha was supposedly insulted by having his call for surrender loosely described as cowardly and not worthy of a Marine.
The Democrats purport to be enraged at the supposed insult. Why? The Republicans called them on their shabby little Kabuki rite of trotting out a patriot and turning him/her into a whining loser. They began it in Vietnam and when Zarqawi and Zawahiri refer to "God created Americans as the most abject cowards of God's creatures," they surely had the Democrats in mind.
In fact, the French, Al-Qaeda, the North Koreans and Cuba all regard the Democratic Party as a Fifth Column to undermine American policy. They know that if they wait long enough, wet-eyed dreamers like Carter or slick super-gigolos like Clinton will find a way to support any foreign menace to America, long after the psychos like Kucinich and Streisand and a number of Hollyweird substance abusers have already cried Kamerad, je me rend, and "I give up!" early in the game.
When a former stalwart like Murtha is cajoled or enticed into raising the white flag, the Washington Post and New York Times put the surrender on the front page, above the fold.
When a real hero and widely-admired national leader like John McCain calls for an increase in troops to Iraq, these broadsheets for invertebrates bury the story way back in the paper.
The Mainstream Media in the USA is losing revenue because their editorial policy generally supports a Leftish portion of the population whose views have been softened by relativist nonsense and consumer acquisitiveness.
These so-called Blue Staters may have much of academia in thrall, and the MSM monkey dancing to their organ-grinding, and, yes, they may read the NYT and the WaPo faithfully since these are their daily secular sermons.
However, it is predictable that Al-Qaeda will manage to infiltrate this country and may perhaps detonate an explosion or cause another catastrophe greater than 9/11 if these appeasers and negotiators and lawyers seize control of national policy.
We have already seen how Reno's DOJ steered national security issues into a law and order framework with the help of dedicated lawyers like Jamie Gorelick, thus making enormities like 9/11 much more prone to happen.
And Clinton's backing and hauling on the first World Trade Center attack and subsequent failures in making a strong effort to seize Bin Laden demonstrate the fundamental lack of will on the Liberal Left to preserve the secure environment in which the American values they always prate about can actually flourish.
Oh well, most old soldiers never die, they just fade away, unless like Murtha they depart in a flatulent cloud!
The Democrats purport to be enraged at the supposed insult. Why? The Republicans called them on their shabby little Kabuki rite of trotting out a patriot and turning him/her into a whining loser. They began it in Vietnam and when Zarqawi and Zawahiri refer to "God created Americans as the most abject cowards of God's creatures," they surely had the Democrats in mind.
In fact, the French, Al-Qaeda, the North Koreans and Cuba all regard the Democratic Party as a Fifth Column to undermine American policy. They know that if they wait long enough, wet-eyed dreamers like Carter or slick super-gigolos like Clinton will find a way to support any foreign menace to America, long after the psychos like Kucinich and Streisand and a number of Hollyweird substance abusers have already cried Kamerad, je me rend, and "I give up!" early in the game.
When a former stalwart like Murtha is cajoled or enticed into raising the white flag, the Washington Post and New York Times put the surrender on the front page, above the fold.
When a real hero and widely-admired national leader like John McCain calls for an increase in troops to Iraq, these broadsheets for invertebrates bury the story way back in the paper.
The Mainstream Media in the USA is losing revenue because their editorial policy generally supports a Leftish portion of the population whose views have been softened by relativist nonsense and consumer acquisitiveness.
These so-called Blue Staters may have much of academia in thrall, and the MSM monkey dancing to their organ-grinding, and, yes, they may read the NYT and the WaPo faithfully since these are their daily secular sermons.
However, it is predictable that Al-Qaeda will manage to infiltrate this country and may perhaps detonate an explosion or cause another catastrophe greater than 9/11 if these appeasers and negotiators and lawyers seize control of national policy.
We have already seen how Reno's DOJ steered national security issues into a law and order framework with the help of dedicated lawyers like Jamie Gorelick, thus making enormities like 9/11 much more prone to happen.
And Clinton's backing and hauling on the first World Trade Center attack and subsequent failures in making a strong effort to seize Bin Laden demonstrate the fundamental lack of will on the Liberal Left to preserve the secure environment in which the American values they always prate about can actually flourish.
Oh well, most old soldiers never die, they just fade away, unless like Murtha they depart in a flatulent cloud!
Murtha Vote a Stunt?
"Stunt" was the description of the Democratic House Leadership of the quick call for a vote to leave Iraq immediately by the Republican Speaker.
Hmmm.... wasn't that the same appelation employed by the Republicans when the Senate Dems invoked a seldom-used ploy to hold a session in-camera a couple of weeks ago? For two hours? With no vote?
Oh well. One man's stunt is another Party's call for an open vote.
The whole episode is worth it to watch the pocket-rocket Dennis [the non-menace] Kucinich flailing his arms in the well [rostrum? podium?]in an apparent attempt to achieve lift-off to fly back to Planet Barbra where he breathes the pure nitrous oxide of the whacked-out Left. [Remember this little fellow's principles were not so apparent when he switched from a life-long commitment as a Pro-Life Democrat to being pro-Choice on literally fifteen minutes notice, when told he must do so to get an endorsement for President from NARAL. What a specimen of gravitas! Obviously, un homme serieux, by French standards! Gosh, I'd want him on my side too!]
Seriously, the front-page coverage given Murtha's defection from support for the war in the Washington Post contrasts severely with John McCain's call for more troops which the Post sequestered on page 21 below the fold just a few days ago. Leonard Downie and his fellow-travelers revealing a bias? Gee, I wonder?!
The Beltway Wars have begun to deteriorate, as the Dems begin to lose what tenuous hold on reality they have remaining in order to ramp up for the 2006 mid-term elections. With the flickering quality of leadership the Dems have in the House and Senate, perhaps Barbra's heavy intellectual candlepower [assisted by C[looney] and other Hollyweird heavyweights] could lead them toward the sort of "social contract" so successful in France.
Hmmm.... wasn't that the same appelation employed by the Republicans when the Senate Dems invoked a seldom-used ploy to hold a session in-camera a couple of weeks ago? For two hours? With no vote?
Oh well. One man's stunt is another Party's call for an open vote.
The whole episode is worth it to watch the pocket-rocket Dennis [the non-menace] Kucinich flailing his arms in the well [rostrum? podium?]in an apparent attempt to achieve lift-off to fly back to Planet Barbra where he breathes the pure nitrous oxide of the whacked-out Left. [Remember this little fellow's principles were not so apparent when he switched from a life-long commitment as a Pro-Life Democrat to being pro-Choice on literally fifteen minutes notice, when told he must do so to get an endorsement for President from NARAL. What a specimen of gravitas! Obviously, un homme serieux, by French standards! Gosh, I'd want him on my side too!]
Seriously, the front-page coverage given Murtha's defection from support for the war in the Washington Post contrasts severely with John McCain's call for more troops which the Post sequestered on page 21 below the fold just a few days ago. Leonard Downie and his fellow-travelers revealing a bias? Gee, I wonder?!
The Beltway Wars have begun to deteriorate, as the Dems begin to lose what tenuous hold on reality they have remaining in order to ramp up for the 2006 mid-term elections. With the flickering quality of leadership the Dems have in the House and Senate, perhaps Barbra's heavy intellectual candlepower [assisted by C[looney] and other Hollyweird heavyweights] could lead them toward the sort of "social contract" so successful in France.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Woodward's source for Plame
Tom Maguire probably has the right line on who talked to Woodward. It was either Richard Armitage or Marc Grossman, both of whom would have been privy to the Interagency Parleys leading up to the fool's errand to Niger that State straightforwardly opposed, on the grounds that the American Ambassador in Niger was well connected enough to do the job.
And we can also surmise that State probably did not want a self-promoting loose cannon like Wilson on the job. But his wife's skirts outweighed the feckless INR crowd---who by the way have been remarkably accurate and remarkably unpoliticized throughout the entire shoddy runup to Iraq.
Colin Powell's humiliation in the UN preceded the subsequent fiasco in Baghdad when the State Team led by General Garner and Tom Warrick were pushed off their assignment to run civil affairs by serial eff-ups Cheney and his CPA lap puppy L. Paul Bremer, an FSO whose main expertise was Northern Europe, clicking his heels in the presence of Rumsfeld, and kissing the ring of Henry Kissinger.
Armitage would have been active in any Interagency run-up to Iraq---one commenter notes to Maguire that Armitage asked Carl Ford in July for a copy of the relevant paperwork and that meant he had not seen the Niger documentation in June, but Seventh Floor Offices often do not keep dossiers in their own files, but destroy highly sensitive material after reading [At least they did back in the day......when I interacted with Seventh Floor principals and often brought them docs they needed for a specific purpose].
Armitage is a casual fellow and knew Woodward well. He may have dropped Plame's name as a tidbit and both may have promptly gone on to other more pressing items on their agenda.
The Left's Hyper-Obsessive manic frenzies during these gotcha go-get-em affairs do remind an observer on how very FRENCH these lactating lefty journalists seem to be. Every breathless episode evoking frissons of anticipation and certitude of fulfillment.
But in reality, these scribblers are concierges checking for the slightest deviation from political correctness, little old ladies at the word processor/bluetooth.
I suggest that Fitzgerald either drop the new Grand Jury or interview the journalists like Kristof, Mitchell, Russert, and Woodward in his truffle-snuffling manner. Looks like a new piece of furniture has been installed inside the Beltway.
What a colossal snipe hunt instigated by a bureaucratic mistake! The FSOs were correct anticipating that Wilson would ratchet his assignment to Niger into a self-serving career move----Richard Clarke, take note that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
And we can also surmise that State probably did not want a self-promoting loose cannon like Wilson on the job. But his wife's skirts outweighed the feckless INR crowd---who by the way have been remarkably accurate and remarkably unpoliticized throughout the entire shoddy runup to Iraq.
Colin Powell's humiliation in the UN preceded the subsequent fiasco in Baghdad when the State Team led by General Garner and Tom Warrick were pushed off their assignment to run civil affairs by serial eff-ups Cheney and his CPA lap puppy L. Paul Bremer, an FSO whose main expertise was Northern Europe, clicking his heels in the presence of Rumsfeld, and kissing the ring of Henry Kissinger.
Armitage would have been active in any Interagency run-up to Iraq---one commenter notes to Maguire that Armitage asked Carl Ford in July for a copy of the relevant paperwork and that meant he had not seen the Niger documentation in June, but Seventh Floor Offices often do not keep dossiers in their own files, but destroy highly sensitive material after reading [At least they did back in the day......when I interacted with Seventh Floor principals and often brought them docs they needed for a specific purpose].
Armitage is a casual fellow and knew Woodward well. He may have dropped Plame's name as a tidbit and both may have promptly gone on to other more pressing items on their agenda.
The Left's Hyper-Obsessive manic frenzies during these gotcha go-get-em affairs do remind an observer on how very FRENCH these lactating lefty journalists seem to be. Every breathless episode evoking frissons of anticipation and certitude of fulfillment.
But in reality, these scribblers are concierges checking for the slightest deviation from political correctness, little old ladies at the word processor/bluetooth.
I suggest that Fitzgerald either drop the new Grand Jury or interview the journalists like Kristof, Mitchell, Russert, and Woodward in his truffle-snuffling manner. Looks like a new piece of furniture has been installed inside the Beltway.
What a colossal snipe hunt instigated by a bureaucratic mistake! The FSOs were correct anticipating that Wilson would ratchet his assignment to Niger into a self-serving career move----Richard Clarke, take note that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Woodward's "Atomic Bomb"
Slate Editor-at-Large Jack Shafer claims he sustained coffee stains and first-degree ouch blisters when he read about Bob Woodward's revelation.
Do you ever get the feeling that most journalists believe the sky is falling if one of their own does not behave like a lemming on methamphetimines?
The hyperventilations and hysterics concerning Woodward reflect the funhouse mirrors most ink-stained MSM wretches have become. The fact that one of Woodward's sources informed him of Plame's status a month before the Novak column is "an atomic bomb."
Sure that's not a hydrogen bomb, Jack, or maybe some sort of Neutron Bomb that was developed at a "black site" by a "black program" paid for by a "black budget?"
Then there is the problem of Woodward's confidentiality agreement. Was it written or verbal? Why did the source out Woodward, then insist that his name be kept out of it? Was it VP Cheney trying to get his pal Libby out of his legal jam?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The assumption of icon status in American Journalism by the NYT and WaPo has each of them chipping away at the other, as when an "anonymous" WaPo Comment Board is violated when a WaPo colleague fingerpoints Jonathon Yardley for nasty remarks about Woodward by outing Yardley to the Jason Blair/Judy Miller NYTimes.
Meanwhile, Generation Why? asks the same questions I have posed about the ridiculous liar Wilson who the MSM Lefties follow mindlessly down the path where their Age of Decline is taking them----to endless bickering and parsing and yammering about who is taking the higher [make that less low] road to their goal.
Which is, their goal I mean?
Another Gotcha-game as they overreach toward another Emerald City, another Watergate.
The public cannot get excited, and while Bush's polls subside, so do Congress's and the Press's numbers get down toward the teens.
How many copies of the Deep Throat book got remaindered? The public just ain't buying it.
Thank God for bloggers, [pace Mary Mapes].
Do you ever get the feeling that most journalists believe the sky is falling if one of their own does not behave like a lemming on methamphetimines?
The hyperventilations and hysterics concerning Woodward reflect the funhouse mirrors most ink-stained MSM wretches have become. The fact that one of Woodward's sources informed him of Plame's status a month before the Novak column is "an atomic bomb."
Sure that's not a hydrogen bomb, Jack, or maybe some sort of Neutron Bomb that was developed at a "black site" by a "black program" paid for by a "black budget?"
Then there is the problem of Woodward's confidentiality agreement. Was it written or verbal? Why did the source out Woodward, then insist that his name be kept out of it? Was it VP Cheney trying to get his pal Libby out of his legal jam?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The assumption of icon status in American Journalism by the NYT and WaPo has each of them chipping away at the other, as when an "anonymous" WaPo Comment Board is violated when a WaPo colleague fingerpoints Jonathon Yardley for nasty remarks about Woodward by outing Yardley to the Jason Blair/Judy Miller NYTimes.
Meanwhile, Generation Why? asks the same questions I have posed about the ridiculous liar Wilson who the MSM Lefties follow mindlessly down the path where their Age of Decline is taking them----to endless bickering and parsing and yammering about who is taking the higher [make that less low] road to their goal.
Which is, their goal I mean?
Another Gotcha-game as they overreach toward another Emerald City, another Watergate.
The public cannot get excited, and while Bush's polls subside, so do Congress's and the Press's numbers get down toward the teens.
How many copies of the Deep Throat book got remaindered? The public just ain't buying it.
Thank God for bloggers, [pace Mary Mapes].
Wilson urges Washington Post to probe Woodward
Self-appointed people's tribune Ex-Ambassador Wilson now instructs the Washington Post front office to probe why Woodward did NOT assist in leaking classified information concerning his wife Valerie Plame back in June of 2003.
Let's get this straight. Wilson claims that Mr. Libby should be prosecuted for "outing" his wife and Mr. Woodward should be "probed" as to why he did NOT reveal Wilson's wife's position.
The State Department has thousands of public servants who quietly work on matters impinging on consular issues, international conferences, national security, trade and economic interests, and bilateral/multlateral relations around the globe.
Occasionally Foggy Bottom will be afflicted by a self-serving careerist whose chief loyalty is to his/her own interests. These types are very few and far between.
However, Wilson appears to be straining to attain a Guinness record for working the system to aggrandize his book and speaking-tour reimbursements. First, he gets his CIA spouse to recommend him for a top-secret mission to Niger---a mission the CIA should have undertaken itself, one would think.
Then this grandiose specimen outs himself in an Op-Ed piece in the NYT, knowing full well that his wife's role in getting him the spooky assignment might be revealed. In addition, to magnify his own importance, the Op-Ed implied VP Cheney's office requested the mission. Wilson's exaggerations, shaving the truth, and yearning for the spotlight are all obvious. In addition, the whole subject concerning Niger was still covered as classified information, but strangely, no one yet has recommended that Wilson be pursued for revealing secret material.
Then the "Plame Leak" by Robert Novak put the fat in the fire. Although Plame had not had a covert job in over five years and thus was not covered by the statute, the MSM began its huffing and puffing. Vanity Fair's columnist [FNU] Wolfe hyped the obvious molehill into a mighty mountain. As the DNC's chief publicist, the MSM collectively wished out loud that the leaker be Karl Rove.....oh, please make it be Karl.
And now, Wilson continues to upstage credible critics. Using Richard Clarke as his template, Wilson jumps up and down and holds his breath like Cindy Sheehan with an education. Wilson even tells adoring leftie students he can't be their hero and run for office because [besides being a self-described ski-bum and serial husband] he INHALED. Perhaps this is the other litmus test that remains to block one from running for office, besides strong opposition to infanticide.
Now that Fitzpatrick has been beatified in the liberal secular canonization process, Woodward' apt description of the case as laughable and Fitzgerald's behavior as "disgraceful" will cause cognitive dissonance among the mindless liberal left hordes yearning for a hero.
Woodward's keen olfactory instincts for fraud were simply overwhelmed by the stink-bomb that is Wilson. His good taste and a residuum of moral fiber has made Woodward vulnerable to the stampeding MSM, so this weekend should see much pious yammering from the commentariat trying to gauge how much they should stain this Watergate icon with their invertebrate ooze.
Let's get this straight. Wilson claims that Mr. Libby should be prosecuted for "outing" his wife and Mr. Woodward should be "probed" as to why he did NOT reveal Wilson's wife's position.
The State Department has thousands of public servants who quietly work on matters impinging on consular issues, international conferences, national security, trade and economic interests, and bilateral/multlateral relations around the globe.
Occasionally Foggy Bottom will be afflicted by a self-serving careerist whose chief loyalty is to his/her own interests. These types are very few and far between.
However, Wilson appears to be straining to attain a Guinness record for working the system to aggrandize his book and speaking-tour reimbursements. First, he gets his CIA spouse to recommend him for a top-secret mission to Niger---a mission the CIA should have undertaken itself, one would think.
Then this grandiose specimen outs himself in an Op-Ed piece in the NYT, knowing full well that his wife's role in getting him the spooky assignment might be revealed. In addition, to magnify his own importance, the Op-Ed implied VP Cheney's office requested the mission. Wilson's exaggerations, shaving the truth, and yearning for the spotlight are all obvious. In addition, the whole subject concerning Niger was still covered as classified information, but strangely, no one yet has recommended that Wilson be pursued for revealing secret material.
Then the "Plame Leak" by Robert Novak put the fat in the fire. Although Plame had not had a covert job in over five years and thus was not covered by the statute, the MSM began its huffing and puffing. Vanity Fair's columnist [FNU] Wolfe hyped the obvious molehill into a mighty mountain. As the DNC's chief publicist, the MSM collectively wished out loud that the leaker be Karl Rove.....oh, please make it be Karl.
And now, Wilson continues to upstage credible critics. Using Richard Clarke as his template, Wilson jumps up and down and holds his breath like Cindy Sheehan with an education. Wilson even tells adoring leftie students he can't be their hero and run for office because [besides being a self-described ski-bum and serial husband] he INHALED. Perhaps this is the other litmus test that remains to block one from running for office, besides strong opposition to infanticide.
Now that Fitzpatrick has been beatified in the liberal secular canonization process, Woodward' apt description of the case as laughable and Fitzgerald's behavior as "disgraceful" will cause cognitive dissonance among the mindless liberal left hordes yearning for a hero.
Woodward's keen olfactory instincts for fraud were simply overwhelmed by the stink-bomb that is Wilson. His good taste and a residuum of moral fiber has made Woodward vulnerable to the stampeding MSM, so this weekend should see much pious yammering from the commentariat trying to gauge how much they should stain this Watergate icon with their invertebrate ooze.
Tugboat Turner hits Cheney
Former DCI Stansfield Turner lashed out at Vice Presidnet Dick Cheney for advocating torture as a means for the CIA to elicit information.
While not a supporter of torture, I think that Turner, who to a large extent is responsible for the sorry state of HumInt at Langley, should not be regarded as a sage observer of CIA policies in general and this one in specific.
Turner was one of the largest inkblots on Jimmy Carter's copybook, a technocrat who never had a significant sea command---hence the appelation "Tugboat"---and who favored gadgets over human intelligence to the extent that he fired 800 of the most senior analysts and operatives, erasing at one fell swoop a large amount of the Agency's institutional memory. The CIA is still scrambling to get back a HumInt capability largely destroyed by Turner.
Although Cheney himself has serious cred problems, Turner trumps the VP in the credibility chasm department. Like his quixotic former boss Jimmy, Turner's advice is often wrong, but he is never in doubt.
There are serious problems with the use of torture, but let's get credible Democrats [an oxymoron?] to make the case, not a discredited former DCI like Turner.
While not a supporter of torture, I think that Turner, who to a large extent is responsible for the sorry state of HumInt at Langley, should not be regarded as a sage observer of CIA policies in general and this one in specific.
Turner was one of the largest inkblots on Jimmy Carter's copybook, a technocrat who never had a significant sea command---hence the appelation "Tugboat"---and who favored gadgets over human intelligence to the extent that he fired 800 of the most senior analysts and operatives, erasing at one fell swoop a large amount of the Agency's institutional memory. The CIA is still scrambling to get back a HumInt capability largely destroyed by Turner.
Although Cheney himself has serious cred problems, Turner trumps the VP in the credibility chasm department. Like his quixotic former boss Jimmy, Turner's advice is often wrong, but he is never in doubt.
There are serious problems with the use of torture, but let's get credible Democrats [an oxymoron?] to make the case, not a discredited former DCI like Turner.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Steve Sailer and Dennis Mangan
My blog on Michael Ledeen was picked up by steve sailer and Dennis Mangan and kind words were said about my first week in print.
Hope that your linking to these gentlemen will inspire y'all to link here to balmy S. Florida, where the Wilma flu is sidelining myself and just about everyone else. The MSM is ignoring Wilma and attempting to put Katrina in the canon of "tipping points" and "watersheds" and other elderly rubbish that the MSM employs to use as its metrics.
In the meantime, Bob Woodward battens down the hatches for the nitwittery about to be poured on him for wanting to avoid the stink bomb Plame Affaire. Who wouldn't want to avoid getting involved in a witch hunt?
Hope that your linking to these gentlemen will inspire y'all to link here to balmy S. Florida, where the Wilma flu is sidelining myself and just about everyone else. The MSM is ignoring Wilma and attempting to put Katrina in the canon of "tipping points" and "watersheds" and other elderly rubbish that the MSM employs to use as its metrics.
In the meantime, Bob Woodward battens down the hatches for the nitwittery about to be poured on him for wanting to avoid the stink bomb Plame Affaire. Who wouldn't want to avoid getting involved in a witch hunt?
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Ledeen Strikes Again
A little while ago, Michael Ledeen made the news again, this time by arranging a meeting in Paris between former Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and Larry Franklin, a Pentagon aide who has been indicted as a spy for Israel and who works in Douglas Feith���s shadow-CIA in the OSD. Ghorbanifar was the Iranian middleman in the notorious Iran-Contra Scandal that smudged President Reagan���s reputation in the late ���80���s.
But wait, there may be much more on the Ledeen eff-up list in the news. Ledeen is reputed to have excellent contacts in SISMI. Word among the Langley corridor corps has it that Ledeen and Dewey Clarridge, a noted CIA adventurer back in his agency days, may have recently employed their black arts to concoct semi-official Niger yellowcake uranium documentation at the center of the Valerie Plame name-leak affaire. According to the story line, the phony documents were then foisted on SISMI, the hapless Keystone Kop Italian intelligence agency which----presto!---- passed it to the British and American intelligence agencies as more proof of Saddam���s evil intentions.
After both Wilson and the American Ambassador to Niger pointed out the fraudulent nature of the documents, the Neocon express continued barreling down the road to catastrophe in Iraq. Vice President Cheney���s Foreign Affairs maestro I. Lewis Libby set out to discredit Wilson���s subsequent showboat op-ed piece in the NYT and, if he had simply pointed out that Wilson is a self-serving specimen of careerist grandiosity, that would have been acceptable political payback. Bringing in Wilson���s wife was hitting below the belt, but probably not illegal [technically, she had not been in a covert capacity for five years, and thus the law in question did not apply]. Another question concerning the documents��� origin are obvious internal errors such as mistakes about the Niger officials named in the paperwork. It is questionable whether such inaccurate tradecraft would have left a shop supervised by Ledeen and Dewey Clarridge. The FBI���s verdict is that the documents are part of a crooked business deal.
If he is at all involved in the matter, it would be another chapter in Ledeen���s splendiferous history of subterfuge. He is the joker we have to thank for Iran Contra. He used his excellent Mossad contacts and world-class bridge player mind to concoct a plan whereby Israel could market the gigantic PLO arms caches it found in its 1982 foray into South Lebanon [and actually Central Lebanon!] to the Iranians who were fighting none other than Saddam in the bloody 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The Israelis needed a broker and Ledeen���s Rube Goldberg-type Contra conspiracy became the transaction blueprint. The Kalishnikovs and RPGs were sold by Israel to Iran for top-dollar and the proceeds skimmed to help the Contras in their insurgency against the Sandinista government. Ghorbanifar, it may be recalled, was Ledeen���s Iranian connection in the complicated soon-to-be scandal.
If the Libby indictment helps bring the GWB administration to a sorry pass much like the Iran-Contra imbroglio paralyzed the Reagan agenda, Ledeen will be influential in discrediting two Republican administrations in twenty years!
Along with his SISMI and Mossad connections, perhaps Ledeen is a secret operative for the Democratic Party as well!!!
But wait, there may be much more on the Ledeen eff-up list in the news. Ledeen is reputed to have excellent contacts in SISMI. Word among the Langley corridor corps has it that Ledeen and Dewey Clarridge, a noted CIA adventurer back in his agency days, may have recently employed their black arts to concoct semi-official Niger yellowcake uranium documentation at the center of the Valerie Plame name-leak affaire. According to the story line, the phony documents were then foisted on SISMI, the hapless Keystone Kop Italian intelligence agency which----presto!---- passed it to the British and American intelligence agencies as more proof of Saddam���s evil intentions.
After both Wilson and the American Ambassador to Niger pointed out the fraudulent nature of the documents, the Neocon express continued barreling down the road to catastrophe in Iraq. Vice President Cheney���s Foreign Affairs maestro I. Lewis Libby set out to discredit Wilson���s subsequent showboat op-ed piece in the NYT and, if he had simply pointed out that Wilson is a self-serving specimen of careerist grandiosity, that would have been acceptable political payback. Bringing in Wilson���s wife was hitting below the belt, but probably not illegal [technically, she had not been in a covert capacity for five years, and thus the law in question did not apply]. Another question concerning the documents��� origin are obvious internal errors such as mistakes about the Niger officials named in the paperwork. It is questionable whether such inaccurate tradecraft would have left a shop supervised by Ledeen and Dewey Clarridge. The FBI���s verdict is that the documents are part of a crooked business deal.
If he is at all involved in the matter, it would be another chapter in Ledeen���s splendiferous history of subterfuge. He is the joker we have to thank for Iran Contra. He used his excellent Mossad contacts and world-class bridge player mind to concoct a plan whereby Israel could market the gigantic PLO arms caches it found in its 1982 foray into South Lebanon [and actually Central Lebanon!] to the Iranians who were fighting none other than Saddam in the bloody 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The Israelis needed a broker and Ledeen���s Rube Goldberg-type Contra conspiracy became the transaction blueprint. The Kalishnikovs and RPGs were sold by Israel to Iran for top-dollar and the proceeds skimmed to help the Contras in their insurgency against the Sandinista government. Ghorbanifar, it may be recalled, was Ledeen���s Iranian connection in the complicated soon-to-be scandal.
If the Libby indictment helps bring the GWB administration to a sorry pass much like the Iran-Contra imbroglio paralyzed the Reagan agenda, Ledeen will be influential in discrediting two Republican administrations in twenty years!
Along with his SISMI and Mossad connections, perhaps Ledeen is a secret operative for the Democratic Party as well!!!
Friday, November 11, 2005
dave in boca
VETERANS DAY
November Eleventh has changed over the many years since the 11th Hour of the 11th of the 11th month of 1918.
As a little kid, I can remember when "Armistice Day" as it was called then brought out flags everywhere on lawns and streets to commemorate the fallen heroes of the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War. I can recall reading about the last living veterans of the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Their names were in the Milwaukee Journal, a paper which paid much attention to the patriotism of its readers.
Since Vietnam, I have a sense that the country as a whole has regarded its military veterans in a different light, although still paying them the honor of regard for their service. Of course, localities celebrate their veterans in various ways. When we lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago in the '90's, there was a color guard at the gazebo in Glencoe near the train station and a list of names of local residents killed in recent conflicts was read aloud. Now that the family lives in Boca Raton, the day seems to pass without event. Whether this is because of the anonymity of the South Florida civic landscape or the indifference of the many municipalities or my own failure to spot where the events will be held, the relative absence of ceremony is a void.
Today I did discuss Vietnam , where I spent the better halves of 1970 and 1971 with my friend Lou, the bloodwork specialist at my doc's office. Lou is a former Navy Corpsman and we had a discussion of former wars. I was a State Dept. FSO seconded to CORDS in Vietnam and during the Gulf War, managed to get into Saudi Arabia as a journalist.
A lot of memories flooded in as I told Lou about talking to Caryle Murphy, a Washington Post reporter who later got a Pulitzer for her reporting on the runup to the Gulf War [the chivalric "Desert Shield"] while a Scud came into Riyadh in plain view from where we were. Patriot missiles hurtled skyward and it was Independence Day for just a minute in the Saudi night. [The Scud hit the "Passport Building" and killed a hapless night watchman.]
I guess all recollections of conflicts get condensed into a few episodes when years peel away the persistence of memory. My teenage daughter does continue to show interest in my personal experiences, and I do have an interview of myself by Judy Woodruff of the [then] MacNeil/Lehrer Report on tape which PBS sent to my wife after it aired. I have not seen my questions at the Daily Briefing which my brother Dick, a video technician, recorded and put together on a single VHS tape. Just never looked back, I guess. One of these days..........
With the Second Oil War tangled in controversy, I guess we continue to wonder as Americans whether the old Latin saying still applies:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI.
November Eleventh has changed over the many years since the 11th Hour of the 11th of the 11th month of 1918.
As a little kid, I can remember when "Armistice Day" as it was called then brought out flags everywhere on lawns and streets to commemorate the fallen heroes of the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War. I can recall reading about the last living veterans of the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Their names were in the Milwaukee Journal, a paper which paid much attention to the patriotism of its readers.
Since Vietnam, I have a sense that the country as a whole has regarded its military veterans in a different light, although still paying them the honor of regard for their service. Of course, localities celebrate their veterans in various ways. When we lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago in the '90's, there was a color guard at the gazebo in Glencoe near the train station and a list of names of local residents killed in recent conflicts was read aloud. Now that the family lives in Boca Raton, the day seems to pass without event. Whether this is because of the anonymity of the South Florida civic landscape or the indifference of the many municipalities or my own failure to spot where the events will be held, the relative absence of ceremony is a void.
Today I did discuss Vietnam , where I spent the better halves of 1970 and 1971 with my friend Lou, the bloodwork specialist at my doc's office. Lou is a former Navy Corpsman and we had a discussion of former wars. I was a State Dept. FSO seconded to CORDS in Vietnam and during the Gulf War, managed to get into Saudi Arabia as a journalist.
A lot of memories flooded in as I told Lou about talking to Caryle Murphy, a Washington Post reporter who later got a Pulitzer for her reporting on the runup to the Gulf War [the chivalric "Desert Shield"] while a Scud came into Riyadh in plain view from where we were. Patriot missiles hurtled skyward and it was Independence Day for just a minute in the Saudi night. [The Scud hit the "Passport Building" and killed a hapless night watchman.]
I guess all recollections of conflicts get condensed into a few episodes when years peel away the persistence of memory. My teenage daughter does continue to show interest in my personal experiences, and I do have an interview of myself by Judy Woodruff of the [then] MacNeil/Lehrer Report on tape which PBS sent to my wife after it aired. I have not seen my questions at the Daily Briefing which my brother Dick, a video technician, recorded and put together on a single VHS tape. Just never looked back, I guess. One of these days..........
With the Second Oil War tangled in controversy, I guess we continue to wonder as Americans whether the old Latin saying still applies:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
PHONY WAR?
The NYT and WPost are mouthing the same tiresome economic and victimization mantras most mini-marxist socialism-lite minders recite to blame everything on institutions and absolve individuals from any responsibility. I continue to read Le Monde and the French press, and lived several years in France and from my experience, it is clear that the elitist dirigiste left-wing political class is now scheming to undercut Minister of Interior Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is guilty of calling for law and order without the kowtowing and empty bromides the social/political mandarinate in Paris demands toward the poor disadvantaged arsonists. Perhaps his naming them "racaille" ["scum"] was over the top, although probably broadly accurate.
"Dialogue" bleats the Minister of Social Cohesion.
Yeah, stopping the Germans in 1940 with dialogue [remember the ???Phony War?] didn???t work, but the French always pretend to know better.
I can imagine the brilliantined stick-insect de Villepin doing a good imitation of Christopher Walken's "continental" as he tries to craft appeasement strategies with the ailing charlatan Chirac. These two want to exclude the half-Jewish Sarkozy from their effete parleys as much as possible. They fingerpoint the blame on Sarkozy for lack of deference to the social status of the arsonists.
Meantime, the International Left commentariat is struggling to control the narrative. These social engineers in Brussels want to replicatethe leftist social & economic catastrophe that produces 10% unemployment in France and Germany all across Europe. Francophiles in the USA [Kerry comes to mind] don't want these Franco-inspired social planners backed into a corner.
The normally balanced Economist, for instance, tries to bury the story of the French fire-bombings on page 54-55 in today???s edition. The Economist, which should have known better, had a cover two months ago with ???America???s Shame??? a few days after the dykes broke and public services were caught flatfooted.
These riots have been going on TEN DAYS, unlike the Watts or ???92 LA riots when the Pompous Socialist Mitterrand sniffed that LA could not happen in France ???BECAUSE OF OUR SOCIAL PROTECTIONS.???
Well, these hopped-up little Muslim druggies are riding their bikes all of France and torching as they gleefully go.
Tsk-tsks from pursed lips aren???t going to stop them.
So much for the French social model.
The best MSM comment so far is from Mark Steyn in the Sun-Times who correctly describes France as the flashpoint for the Eurabian Civil War. He also deftly points out the decades-long assaults on Jewish stores and businesses in France by Arabs as a reflection of the deep anti-Semitism of the French citoyen.
The real victims besides the hapless French may be the Turks, who now see their aspirations for EU membership going up in flames.
But the Europeans are always the last to get the REAL message, which consists of realizing that they have spawned a mini-intifada through their inability to assimilate. I can imagine Al-Qaeda franchise outlets springing up all across Europe aided by the Internet just as I write this.
We in America cannot gloat, because clots of indigestible unassimilable immigrants are now forming across our own civic landscape..
Ironically, the half-Jewish Sarkozy may benefit in the end from the simmering anti-Semitism deep in the French psyche. Jean-Marie Le Pen's myriads of chauvinists may decide for the tough second-generation Sarkozy over the left's alternative of Sarkozy can maneuver into the Presidential race two years from now.
"A bon chat, bon rat," goes the old French saying.
Sarkozy is guilty of calling for law and order without the kowtowing and empty bromides the social/political mandarinate in Paris demands toward the poor disadvantaged arsonists. Perhaps his naming them "racaille" ["scum"] was over the top, although probably broadly accurate.
"Dialogue" bleats the Minister of Social Cohesion.
Yeah, stopping the Germans in 1940 with dialogue [remember the ???Phony War?] didn???t work, but the French always pretend to know better.
I can imagine the brilliantined stick-insect de Villepin doing a good imitation of Christopher Walken's "continental" as he tries to craft appeasement strategies with the ailing charlatan Chirac. These two want to exclude the half-Jewish Sarkozy from their effete parleys as much as possible. They fingerpoint the blame on Sarkozy for lack of deference to the social status of the arsonists.
Meantime, the International Left commentariat is struggling to control the narrative. These social engineers in Brussels want to replicatethe leftist social & economic catastrophe that produces 10% unemployment in France and Germany all across Europe. Francophiles in the USA [Kerry comes to mind] don't want these Franco-inspired social planners backed into a corner.
The normally balanced Economist, for instance, tries to bury the story of the French fire-bombings on page 54-55 in today???s edition. The Economist, which should have known better, had a cover two months ago with ???America???s Shame??? a few days after the dykes broke and public services were caught flatfooted.
These riots have been going on TEN DAYS, unlike the Watts or ???92 LA riots when the Pompous Socialist Mitterrand sniffed that LA could not happen in France ???BECAUSE OF OUR SOCIAL PROTECTIONS.???
Well, these hopped-up little Muslim druggies are riding their bikes all of France and torching as they gleefully go.
Tsk-tsks from pursed lips aren???t going to stop them.
So much for the French social model.
The best MSM comment so far is from Mark Steyn in the Sun-Times who correctly describes France as the flashpoint for the Eurabian Civil War. He also deftly points out the decades-long assaults on Jewish stores and businesses in France by Arabs as a reflection of the deep anti-Semitism of the French citoyen.
The real victims besides the hapless French may be the Turks, who now see their aspirations for EU membership going up in flames.
But the Europeans are always the last to get the REAL message, which consists of realizing that they have spawned a mini-intifada through their inability to assimilate. I can imagine Al-Qaeda franchise outlets springing up all across Europe aided by the Internet just as I write this.
We in America cannot gloat, because clots of indigestible unassimilable immigrants are now forming across our own civic landscape..
Ironically, the half-Jewish Sarkozy may benefit in the end from the simmering anti-Semitism deep in the French psyche. Jean-Marie Le Pen's myriads of chauvinists may decide for the tough second-generation Sarkozy over the left's alternative of Sarkozy can maneuver into the Presidential race two years from now.
"A bon chat, bon rat," goes the old French saying.
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