A REPORT ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN IRAN was released today by the Open Net Initiative. Here’s the direct link.
Archive for 2005
June 21, 2005
IT’S FUNNY THAT THERE’S AN UPSURGE IN DEFEATIST RHETORIC even as we see the terrorists in Iraq fighting among themselves, and even as — surely a key indicator — Kofi Annan is trying to take credit for progress in Iraq.
I’ve got some thoughts on that phenomenon over at GlennReynolds.com.
DURBIN APOLOGIZES: Trey Jackson has the video. But is it — like Trent Lott’s eventual apology, which took just about as long — too little, too late?
UPDATE: Michael Ubaldi files a negative review: “It was an unmusical recital. Durbin hit all the notes but had nothing of feeling or sincerity behind his complete-with-choke-up performance.”
Meanwhile, Will Collier observes:
The damage is done, and al-Jazeera isn’t likely to tout Dickie’s retraction with much vigor. But I can guarantee you that Dickie’s energetic defenders in the MSM and leftie blogosphere are awfully unhappy right now. He just cut them off at the knees.
At least now they have some idea of how the troops felt a week ago.
Ouch. And yes, things have been spinning awfully fast on this subject.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader J.P. Dawson thinks that Mayor Richard Daley deserves credit for pushing Durbin to do the right thing:
Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday that even though U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is a good friend, the fellow Democrat should apologize for comments comparing the actions of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
“I think it’s a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military act like that,” Daley said.
Good point.
POWER AND CONTROL has an Iran roundup.
SO FAR, SO GOOD:
A privately-backed solar sail soared into space Tuesday on a mission to use sunlight to fly through space.
A Russian Volna rocket was used to loft the solar sail-propelled spacecraft, known as Cosmos 1 to its builders. The converted Cold War missile shot skyward at about 3:46 p.m. EDT (1946 GMT) from its Russian nuclear submarine launch pad positioned beneath the Barents Sea. . . .
The $4 million solar sailing project is an undertaking of The Planetary Society, a public space advocacy group headquartered in Pasadena, California. The effort is sponsored by Cosmos Studios, a science-based entertainment company located in Ithaca, New York.
It’ll be a while before we know if the satellite works, but at least the launch has gone off properly.
WOULD A REHNQUIST RETIREMENT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Rick Hasen says yes, and in the process offers a reason not to like Michael McConnell: “McConnell seems more willing than Rehnquist to consider upholding novel campaign finance arrangements.”
THE INEVITABLE BILLY JACK COMMENTS, from Protein Wisdom.
WELL, THIS is heartwarming:
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.
Can we clone those lions?
RED ON RED: Iraqi insurgents battling the foreign fighters, while Marines look on.
UPDATE: More here.
ZIMBABWE UPDATE: It just gets worse:
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe police have extended a demolition campaign targeting the homes and livelihoods of the urban poor to the vegetable gardens they rely on for food, saying the crops planted on vacant lots are damaging the environment. . . .
The crackdown on urban farming — at a time of food shortages in Zimbabwe — is the latest escalation in the government’s monthlong Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, which has seen police demolish the shacks of poor city dwellers, arrest street vendors and smash their kiosks.
Amazing that Mugabe has any support left.
BELTWAY BLOGROLL is a new blog by Daniel Glover of The National Journal. It looks interesting, and unlike most of their content it’s open to nonsubscribers.
NORM GERAS: “I have never seen, in all the voluminous discussion since the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s rule, anything from the anti-war camp (perhaps I just haven’t read widely enough) that made a distinction between mistakes and avoidable mistakes, or mistakes and culpable mistakes. . . . it suggests one of two things: either that the undertaking could have been carried out altogether smoothly and unproblematically; or that the criticism of mistakes is motivated more by an impulse to oppose than by a desire for the undertaking to succeed.”
“RUN, DO NOT WALK:” Rick Brookhiser loved Cinderella Man. Judging by these customer reviews, so did a lot of other people.
FIGHT CENSORSHIP: Adopt a Chinese blog.
UNSCAM UPDATE: It’s another oil-for-food victory for Claudia Rosett, and the pressure is still on.
TEXT-MESSAGING and the Iranian elections.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I call on those who question the motives of the president and his national security advisors to join with the rest of America in presenting a united front to our enemies abroad.” Guess who?
ONE OF MY COLLEAGUES says that schools are “an evil conspiracy of ‘morning people’.” Given the ungodly start times at Knox County Schools (I have to have my daughter there by 7:40) I’ve always agreed. Now there’s reason to think it’s hurting kids.
PRAWFSBLAWG offers some thoughts on Saddam and international law.
I have to say that I think these unheeded warnings have been borne out.
TV UPDATE: I never bought the subject of this TV advice bleg. Instead, the Insta-Wife and Insta-Daughter fell in love with one we saw at Circuit City (I think it’s this model slightly rebadged for Circuit City). I wasn’t crazy about it, but (1) it was on sale and cheap; and (2) they’re the ones who watch TV in the bedroom, so their opinion counts more. (See the advice from reader Ben Ziller). It’s a pretty good TV, but then most of them are. Did I mention it was (relatively) cheap? So I’m not complaining.
A SOLDIER IN IRAQ WRITES THE STAR-TRIBUNE: It almost seems as if there are more people writing the Strib than there are reading it . . . .
BILL COSBY SPOKE IN ST. LOUIS: Jim Hoft was there.
DOG RAPE — A DIALOGUE: Jonah Goldberg and Rand Simberg weigh in. Those who have accused me of ignoring this vital subject now know where to go.
BILLY JACK IS BACK, which should have Jeff Goldstein overjoyed.