THOUGHTS ON THE WAR, over at GlennReynolds.com. Where the John Kerry campaign is advertising!

BLACKFIVE WRITES that journalists are making fools of themselves via their ignorance of things military:

The military is not calling back discharged and retired individual soldiers. They are dipping into the Individual Ready Reserve. There is a big difference between calling up IRR soldiers and recalling retired or discharged soldiers.

When you sign a contract to enlist or get a commission, it is generally for EIGHT years. You perform four years of Active Duy, then you have four left in the Reserves or National Guard.

He dissects a number of stories that get it wrong. You know, this kind of thing might have been excusable before, but we’ve been at war for going on three years. You’d think somebody would have bothered to learn this stuff.

UPDATE: Here’s a related post from SgtStryker.com.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Rob Matteo emails:

Kudos for your post from Blackfive and Sgt. Stryker. I am a retired Army Officer and the minute I started hearing the reports of a “backdoor draft” etc. I knew that once again, the press has no clue on all things military. Any soldier would know there is a huge difference.

How is it possible that there is no editor or writer who has ever served in the miltary? Not very representative of our society I’d say.

They’ve got a diversity problem.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Shaun Evans emails:

It is bad that no journalists have served in the military. But it is
inexecusable to go to press with a story that could have been corrected
with a 15 second google search (including typing the query): Link

Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a manpower pool in the Ready Reserve,
primarily consists of: Individuals who have had training, have served
previously in the Active component or the Selected Reserve, and have
some period of a military obligation remaining. IRR members are in an
active status, but do not perform regularly scheduled training.

Indeed. It’s almost like they want to get it wrong. Meanwhile Dan Williams emails that the confusion is widespread:

It’s not just the media getting it wrong. Teachers and parents are taking in the info and passing it to teens. I’m a scout master and deal with a lot of teen boys. Many seem to be convinced that the draft is coming back and the Bush admin is going to draft them all into the military.

I try to explain the politics to them when I get the chance, but it’s far more complex than they expect politics to be.

Charles Rangel with his Draft bill ain’t a Bushie.

And everybody’s happy about that, at least . . . .

THE LAST IN MY series of TechCentralStation columns on aging is up.

THE HATRED JUST GETS WORSE. (Via Petrelis, via Sullivan).

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DISCOVERS Iraq’s Greg Packer. Or something like that, though this is probably unfair to Greg Packer.

ADDED SOME NEW PHOTOS over at the Exposure Manager site — both new stuff in the Tennessee Backroads gallery, and an entire new gallery of thematic stuff. I’m still way behind in reviewing and processing (via PhotoShop) images I’ve already taken.

Not all the photos are as pretty as some I’ve posted before, but they’re more in accordance with the Walker Evansish style that characterized my work some years ago.

And for those who wonder, I remain very happy with the Nikon D70. It’s hard to get a bad picture with that camera, though I’ve risen to the challenge from time to time. . .

EVAN COYNE MALONEY has a new video online. As always, it’s worth watching.

MY COLLEAGUE TOM PLANK emails this link to an article by John Keegan and comments: “I served with D Co., 1st Bn, 7th Marines, 1 MarDiv, in Vietnam. I was proud to read this. If I were a 21-yr old college grad (now and earlier with Afghanistan), I would sign up again.”

AMBER TAYLOR is trying to get International Kissing Day to take off in the United States.

It’s next Tuesday, so start warming up those lips.

UPDATE: I like this observation, from Amber’s comments:

Y’know, if we can get a national “Talk Like A Pirate Day”, we should be able to get a Kissing Day. It would be really amusing if we could get one of the two days to rotate in such a fashion that every once in a while they would overlap. Then again, “Kiss me, you scurvy wench!” might be a deal breaker for many a young lady…

Some, on the other hand, might like it.

KERRY CROSSES A PICKET LINE? Northwestern Univ. Law Professor James Lindgren sends this email:

As the New York Times reported yesterday, John Kerry refused to cross a picket line on Monday in Boston to speak to the National Conference of Mayors. He was quoted as saying on Sunday night: “‘I don’t cross picket lines,’ he said. ‘I never have.'”

Yet this morning (Tuesday) in Chicago Kerry spoke at the annual meeting of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, which was being very actively picketed by a labor group, Voices of Morality (VOM). VOM is leading a labor discrimination protest against Daimler-Chrysler (the signs that the picketers were holding looked very much like ones in pictures on the VOM website). Jackson and the PUSH conference were being targeted because, according to a local Chicago ABC TV news report, Jackson has ties to Daimler-Chrysler. The reporter referred to the PUSH coalition conference as one on “labor,” but neither the official text of the Kerry speech nor the PUSH website lists that as the topic of the conference, though of course PUSH is best known nationally for its labor activities–picketing corporations and negotiating financial deals with them.

I just watched the 11:30am ABC-Channel 7 (Chicago) coverage of Kerry’s speech and the protest. The pickets were obvious and clear and were mentioned more than once in the report, but there was no specific mention in the report how Kerry entered the hotel where the conference was being held, whether pickets were present when he entered the hotel, or whether he or his staff knew of the labor picketing going on.

I hope that the NY Times and the rest of the press following Kerry will sort out the facts of this tantalizing story. Perhaps they might determine whether:

1. Kerry changed his mind since Sunday night and now does cross picket lines if the stakes are high enough (which would let mayors understand where they rate).

OR

2. Kerry always believed in crossing some picket lines (treating some sorts of labor picketing as different from others, a defensible position but one that would be inconsistent with his Sunday statement that he doesn’t cross picket lines).

OR

3. Neither Kerry nor his staff was aware of the labor protest and picketing (either because it appeared after they arrived at the hotel or some other reason), in which case Kerry should answer whether he made an understandable and regrettable mistake in appearing at a conference being picketed over labor issues.

LINKS:

Kerry speaking at PUSH:
Link 1
Link 2

PUSH website:
Link

VOM website:
Link

I hope someone in Chicago will look into this. It sounds like news.

UPDATE: Nothing in this story about the picket line, but it was a panderthon!

ANOTHER UPDATE: More questions. Greg Sanders emails about Boston:

Just a question, but what happens when the Democrats hold their Convention in Boston if the picket line is still there? Does Kerry cross it then and not support the labor side of the dispute? Do they move the convention so he does not have to cross a picket line? Do they (Democrats) convince the strikers to come to a temp agreement till the convention is over so that he does not have to cross a picket line? Or they (Democrats) just do not recognize it as a picket line but view them as a show of support from labor and well wishers at the convention (anyone can believe what they want)? Just thought I would ask.

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I may have an answer via this email from reader Gerald Dearing:

For what it’s worth: Spent Monday in Boston. The buzz on the radio was that quite a few in the party were miffed that Kerry had “stiffed” the mayors. This was accompanied by speculation that there was a deal in place where the union would agree not to picket the Dem’s Convention if Kerry supported their stand now. No links, no proof. But it’s an interesting point: will Kerry refuse to cross a picket line if it means he fails to accept his own nomination?

Last I heard from Gerald he was stranded in Missoula with a blown supercharger, so I’m glad to get a report from Boston. This sounds interesting, anyway. And finally, reader Dave Farrell thinks he’s got the formula figured out:

I guess even John Kerry would find it difficult to straddle a picket line, although this is a stout effort. I think it works like scissors, paper, rock: picket line beats mayors, Jesse Jackson (“rainbow vote”) trumps picket line. Alas, how shameless politics is.

Indeed!

MICKEY KAUS busts the New York Times’ horserace coverage: “But the Times coverage isn’t really that bad. It’s worse!”

UPDATE: Brendan Loy responds to Kaus on Dem Panic. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to lose. Not because Bush is unbeatable — because we have a crappy candidate who can do no better than tying Bush when he’s at his absolute low-point. This is all Iowa’s fault.”

BACK FROM IRAQ, a Marine reservist comments on the press coverage.

HILLARY CLINTON: “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”

Hmm. Next she’ll be showing up on James Lileks’ doorstep.

UPDATE: A “gift” to Karl Rove? The Clinton conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this. . . .

AXIS OF EVIL:

UNITED NATIONS June 29, 2004 — The U.S. government has expelled two Iranian security guards working at Iran’s U.N. mission, citing activities “incompatible with their stated duties” diplomatic language for spying.

The guards were taking photos of infrastructure, modes of transportation and New York City landmarks, a U.S. official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. They were the third set of Iranian guards caught taking pictures.

If anything happens in New York, we’ll know who to look at.

DARFUR UPDATE: Here’s a link-rich post on Colin Powell’s visit to the Sudan today, and on the Sudanese government’s effort to keep the lid on the ongoing Darfur genocide.

YOUR DONATIONS AT WORK: I’m sending this Pentax digital camera to Iraq along with my secretary, a Marine combat-engineer reservist who’s headed over there next week. It looks good for the duty: compact, waterproof (which I hope means dust-resistant), uses AA batteries and shoots video with sound. (The PayPal donation balance just about covered it.) He’s a bit of a photo/video geek, so I’m hoping he’ll send back some good stuff. If I get any, I’ll post it.

DAVID HARDY AND JASON CLARKE’S new book about Michael Moore went on sale today, and it’s already at #20 on Amazon. I got an advance copy last week, but the InstaWife immediately stole it. (She’s bad about that).

Just for the record, though, I don’t think that Moore is stupid.

CHIRAC, TURKEY, AND THE E.U.: Some interesting observations from George Miller.

UPDATE: EurSoc observes:

It is hard to believe that once upon a time, French was the language of diplomacy. . . . Bush, having seen Chirac explode when New European nations disagreed with him over the Iraq war (“they missed a good chance to shut up”) will not take it personally. When Chirac is in a corner, as he is so often these days, he lashes out. It is a sign he is beaten.

Ouch.

SPOONS THINKS I was too easy on Judge Guido Calabresi’s comparison of Bush to Mussolini and Hitler. It’s just that the statement was so out of character for him that it’s easy for me to believe he didn’t mean for it to come out that way. Of course, as Joel Engel notes, the Mussolini comparison would better fit someone besides Bush:

Mussolini stood on street corners and shouted that Italy’s war with Turkey and its 1911 invasion of Libya were an imperial grab meant to distract the people from their hunger. He organized and led protests, some of them violent, and was jailed. That made him a martyr and, when he was released, a hero of the left. As a reward, Avanti, the newspaper of Italy’s socialist party, named him editor. This was where he earned a national reputation, for his nasty editorials against the government. He was a socialist, not an anarchist, but he also showed contempt for democracy, believing that most people were too stupid to know what was in their own best interests and that they were anyway too ignorant to choose their own best leaders.

Hmm. That doesn’t sound much like Bush.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh has posted the text of Calabresi’s apology letter.

NEWS FROM SYRIA: “After four years of Bashar al-Assad’s presidency in Syria, his promises of economic and political reform have not materialised. The system he inherited from his father, including a feared security service, looks very much the same.” Someone tell the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Oh, wait. . .

DAN KENNEDY: “Get ready for the next John Kerry media feeding frenzy. Following the court-ordered release of Illinois Republican Senate candidate (make that former candidate) Jack Ryan’s seamy divorce papers, anti-Kerry forces are now demanding the same treatment for Kerry and his first wife, Julia Thorne.”

I agree with Kennedy’s take on this: “If Ryan and his ex-wife wanted their sealed records to remain sealed, that should have been respected. Voters should have been trusted to make what they would of the Ryans’ refusal to go public. Same with Kerry and Thorne.”

I’m also pretty sure it won’t work out that way.

JOHN KEEGAN ON THE IRAQ WAR:

But, however many witnesses to disaster Jon Snow succeeds in finding, witnesses willing to denounce their government and armed forces, he cannot alter the record. The war was conceived and conducted in the honest belief that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. It was legally justified by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 678, 687 and 1441. It was, moreover, as a military operation, astonishingly successful, probably the most successful war ever fought between a democracy and a dictatorship.

He’s somewhat less positive on the reconstruction.

BLOG CENSORSHIP IN SOUTH KOREA: Go here and keep scrolling. Unless you’re in South Korea, where it’s blocked. More here, and especially here.

If you’d like to register polite objections, go here.

COLIN POWELL is travelling to Darfur.

Human Rights Watch seems to want military action.

UPDATE: Here’s a report that the Sudanese government is trying to keep things quiet:

The Sudanese government dispatched 500 men last week to this sweltering camp of 40,000 near El Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, the refugees and aid workers said. The men, some dressed in civilian clothes, others in military uniforms, warned the refugees to keep quiet about their experiences when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan visit the region this week.

Darfur has been the scene of more than 16 months of conflict between residents of the region and Arab militiamen backed by the government. Aid workers say 30,000 people have been killed by the militia and more than 1.2 million forced to flee their homes.

I guess it’s not working very well.

THERE ARE NOW 254 READER REVIEWS of Bill Clinton’s book. Skimming them is like rerunning the 1990s.