IS BLOGGING VOLUME AN economic indicator? Well, there do seem to be a lot of unemployed bloggers. . . .
Archive for 2003
January 31, 2003
YOU’LL NOTICE YOU NEVER SEE RUMSFELD AND STRYKER PHOTOGRAPHED TOGETHER.
RAND SIMBERG has published a glossary that will help in decoding New York Times editorials and the like. Excerpt:
“going it alone”:
Meaning 1: Taking action in concert with numerous European and Middle Eastern nations, and others around the globe, but without France and Germany.
Read the whole thing.
RACHEL LUCAS says that Nelson Mandela has exhausted his moral capital.
Well, his intellectual capital has certainly run dry.
MATERIAL BREACH (AGAIN) — the United States will release intercepted Iraqi communications that show deliberate deception. My prediction: they will be denounced as fakes by Saddam and his supporters.
HERE’S MORE ON THE DEMISE OF BROBECK, PHLEGER — a law firm that fell victim to the dot-com bust. Well, sort of.
AT LEAST THEY’RE NOT ALGERIANS, THIS TIME:
NAPLES (Reuters) – Italian police have arrested 28 Pakistani men suspected of links to al Qaeda in one of the biggest anti-terrorism operations Italy has seen since the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Military police burst into an apartment in central Naples on Wednesday night as part of a routine sweep against illegal immigration and ended up discovering enough explosives to blow up a three-story building, officials said on Friday.
They arrested all 28 men staying in the apartment after finding 800 grams (28 ounces) of explosives, 230 feet of fuse and various electronic detonators crammed behind a false wall.
Islamic religious texts, photos of “jihad” (holy war) martyrs, piles of false documents, maps of the Naples area, addresses of contacts around the world and more than 100 mobile telephones were also found in the run-down lodgings, police said.
A judicial source said the maps had various targets marked out on them including the headquarters of NATO’s southern European command, the U.S. consulate in Naples and a U.S. naval base at Capodichino, just outside the port city.
As Austin Bay has already pointed out, the war buildup isn’t “distracting” from the hunt for Al Qaeda. It’s flushing Al Qaeda from its holes, and making its operatives easier to catch.
DAVE WINER: “AOL was the finger in the dyke of the Internet.”
Nope, not going there.
BUSH’S REAL MOTIVE FOR GOING TO WAR: Revealed at last!
MORE ON THIS WEEK IN DIPLOMACY, over at GlennReynolds.com — and Frank Sinatra makes a guest appearance. Well, sort of.
GUNS FOR TOTS: Dr. Manhattan points to a charity drive in New York that’s worth getting behind.
LESSONS FROM THE RICHARD REID PROSECUTION: TalkLeft notes:
The lesson is this: Our federal courts and our criminal justice system are well equipped to handle terror cases. There is no need to keep the suspects in military custody, cut off from lawyers –or to try them in secret military tribunals. Reid pleaded guilty to all counts and received no promises of leniency or other sentence concessions. Reid had excellent appointed counsel and a U.S. District Court Judge presiding over his case. The proceedings were open to the media and public. Important court filings by both the Prosecution and the Defense were available on the Internet. The Government got the conviction and the life sentence it sought.
For terrorists of the Richard Reid variety, I think this is right. I think, though, that it’s perfectly appropriate to deal with terrorists who are still an active threat via, say, Hellfire missiles.
GOODBYE TO “OLD EUROPE?” Here’s a report that there’s talk about U.S. bases moving from Germany to Poland. The information isn’t enormously solid, but it’s interesting that such rumors are spreading — and they may, themselves, be part of the diplomatic campaign.
ACCORDING TO A source who will remain undisclosed, the White House is emailing out Andrew Sullivan’s “Fisking” of the New York Times’ war coverage to rather a lot of journalists. Heh.
AIRBRUSH AWARD: Look at what Daimler-Chrysler did to this famous Bill Mauldin cartoon. Jeez. I blame the Germans.
“AXIS OF WEASELS” UPDATE: Now it’s in The Economist.
Last week, Germany sandbagged the secretary of state when it said it would not vote for war on Iraq at any price. The French foreign minister then insisted that “nothing” justified war now. This Franco-German grandstanding—the pair were promptly dubbed the “axis of weasels” by Americans—was a personal embarrassment for Mr Powell, the administration’s strongest proponent of seeking UN backing for American policy.
Heh. I think Powell’s getting his revenge. (And see the map below).
HERE’S A GRAPHIC VIEW of support and opposition in Europe regarding the war, courtesy of The Agonist.
Kind of puts those “unilateralist” claims in perspective, doesn’t it?
LEE HARRIS writes on the difference between helping the Third World and feeling good about ourselves.
DOES FRANCE + GERMANY = EUROPE? Apparently the editors of the Boston Globe are geographically challenged, as this editorial neglects to mention the ten other European countries who are supporting the United States, something that ought to be relevant here. On the plus side, though, it does mention “Chirac’s record of collaboration with Saddam.”
FRESNO STATE and Eco-terrorists — can this be as bad as it sounds?
Maybe it’s a “sting” operation.
NO TATTOOS, PLEASE: We’re sailors.
ROBERT KAGAN writes about courage in the face of anti-Americanism on the part of the European leaders who are standing by America. He’s certainly right about the extent to which the European intelligentsia has aligned itself with Pat Buchanan-style conspiracism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism. And yes, it’s widespread enough that it’s brave to face it down; it’s hard to imagine very many American politicians who would be willing to do so, though I can think of a couple.
But it’s a calculated risk that will pay off big, so long as the United States wins the war. The anti-Americanism won’t go away — it will never go away so long as Europe suffers so many self-inflicted wounds it’s afraid to talk about — but as Fareed Zakaria wrote last year, victory is the best propaganda, and if the war in Iraq goes well it will die down quickly, since a lot of the current upsurge is based on fear. And, unlike many previous administrations, the Bush folks seem to remember who America’s friends are, and who they aren’t.
NEXT, ARIANNA HUFFINGTON WILL BE MAKING S.U.V. COMMERCIALS: Mickey Kaus is defending Paul Krugman from his critics.
MAYBE A GANG OF ELEVEN? William Sjostrom reports on Irish support.