DAN RIEHL THINKS that the Dems are blowing it. His analysis may be a bit hopeful, but we’ve certainly seen some significant mistakes in the past few days. Plus, the “outing fever” among the activist left is very distasteful, and is generating blowback. It looks very hypocritical coming from people who’ve spent the last several years warning about Republican threats to privacy, and it also bespeaks an unprincipled hunger for victory and power at any cost. (Some of them are visibly worried about this, and they should be. But it’s a bit late.)
Archive for 2006
October 21, 2006
IT’S A QUAGMIRE, IN FRANCE:
When the call went out about a car burglary in the raw suburb of Épinay-sur-Seine north of here last weekend, three officers in a patrol car rushed over and found themselves surrounded by 30 youths in hoods throwing rocks and swinging bats and metal bars.
Neither tear gas nor stun guns stopped the assault. Only when reinforcements arrived did the siege end. One officer was left with broken teeth and in need of 30 stitches to his face.
The attack was rough but not unique. In the last three weeks alone, three similar assaults on the police have occurred in these suburbs, which a year ago were aflame with the rage of unemployed, undereducated youth, mostly the offspring of Arab and African immigrants.
In fact, with the anniversary of those riots approaching, spiking violent crime statistics across the area suggest not only that things have not improved, but that they also may well have worsened. Residents and experts say that fault lines run even deeper than before and that widespread violence may flare up again at any moment.
“Tension is rising very dramatically,” said Patrice Ribeiro, the deputy head of the Synergie Officiers police union. “There is the will to kill.”
The headline says that “anger is festering,” but as the French police note, it’s more like a climate of impunity. And, as Claire Berlinski notes, it’s exacerbated by an unwillingness to encourage assimilation. As Jim Bennett has said, “democracy, multiculturalism, open immigration — pick any two.”
UPDATE: More here:
Omar, whose parents immigrated from Mali, was savouring memories of the revolt that erupted 12 months ago from his home, the Chêne Pointu estate in Clichy-sous-Bois, in the eastern outskirts of Paris. “We’re ready for it again. In fact it hasn’t stopped,” he added.
Before next week’s anniversary of the Clichy riots, the violence and despair on the estates are again to the fore. Despite a promised renaissance, little has changed, and the lid could blow at any moment.
The figures are stark. An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services. Nearly 3,000 police officers have been injured in clashes this year. Officers have been badly injured in four ambushes in the Paris outskirts since September. Some police talk of open war with youths who are bent on more than vandalism.
“The thing that has changed over the past month is that they now want to kill us,” said Bruno Beschizza, the leader of Synergie, a union to which 40 per cent of officers belong. Action Police, a hardline union, said: “We are in a civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists.”
Read the whole thing. (Via Newsbeat 1). And this passage suggests that the inflexible French economy may be partly to blame: “The young were born here and they are French. But they have nothing. The real problem is work. If they had any these riots would not have happened.”
Mickey Kaus’s thoughts on the welfare/terrorism connection seem more and more prescient.
MORE: A question for Nicolas Sarkozy: “if security is the responsibility of the state, what does he have to say about what is currently going on in the French suburbs?”
IS THE MILITARY BLOWING THE INFORMATION WAR IN IRAQ? Michael Yon says yes, and offers a disturbing story of heavy-handedness and ineptitude.
UPDATE: John Wixted notes that the military has reason to distrust the news media.
Our podcast interview with Michael Yon, by the way, can be heard here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Don’t miss this, from The Mudville Gazette, either.
MORE: Michael Yon has more background on his page.
October 20, 2006
HOW I VOTED in the Tennessee Senate race — click here, or scroll down.
KIRSTEN POWERS: “I’ve been informed by Glenn Greenwald that I am ‘compelled’ to correct this post. Never mind that he never once mentions in his original post that he does not condone gay outing. How anyone can write such a detailed post and not express disgust for outing gays and expect people to think he condemns the outings, is beyond me.”
Me, too. But Greenwald seems to be bigger on demanding corrections than he is on actually being correct..
TOM MAGUIRE looks at Democratic House Intelligence.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Uh oh. More national security problems for the Democrats?
A FORD – CORKER CONFRONTATION: A.C. Kleinheider has video.
UPDATE: That video link no longer works, for some reason but if you go to this story and click on the little camera icon on the left you can see it. Ford’s behavior here seems odd and out of character — the sort of thing that a candidate who’s way behind and desperate for press might pull, not one who’s in striking distance of a win. It’s the first time I’ve seen Corker looking significantly more confident and comfortable than Ford. I don’t get it.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another Ford misstep. He’s run such a strong campaign until now.
And Kleinheider thinks that this is what upset Ford:
In the press conference inside, Corker called for a ban on family members of elected Congressional officials lobbying any member of Congress, pointing out that Ford’s father, Harold Ford Sr., is a registered lobbyist in Washington. Corker also called for more transparency in the way third parties pay for Congressional travel, pointing to 69 trips Ford has made. He also recommended earmark reform for appropriations spending bills.
This seems like pretty tame stuff to elicit such a reaction. I’m all for earmark reform. So’s Ford, though — at least that’s what he said in our interview.
MORE: Further analysis from Kleinheider here.
STILL MORE: “What on Earth is Harold Ford Jr. thinking? He has run a smooth and professional campaign so far and he pulls a stunt like this? His handlers must have been taking the day off.”
More video here.
THE SUPREME COURT ALLOWS A VOTER I.D. LAW: There’s more at The Volokh Conspiracy. More on the general topic of voter fraud and voter I.D. here.
UPDATE: More from Rick Hasen.
SHOCKING PRAISE FOR BUSH’S POLITICAL PERFORMANCE, from Tim Cavanaugh of all people:
As I never tire of pouring icy water on political hopes, I’ll point out again that Bush is still way ahead of the average presidential-coattails performance in off-year and midterm races. Even if the GOP lost both houses in November, Bush would still be ahead of the average. He’s already an electoral success for his party. How such a small man had such a big effect is something future historians, with their smellevision and massive frontal and parietal lobes, will have to puzzle out.
And their flying cars. Don’t forget the flying cars.
ROGER CLEGG: “Actually, I thought the KKK rather liked some racial preferences.”
INTERESTING ITEM from The Chronicle of Higher Eduction:
The report, by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, was based on an online, nationally representative survey of 1,259 professors at four-year colleges and universities in the spring of 2005. It found that, in general, professors are critical of American business and foreign policy and are skeptical of capitalism.
Among other findings, the report, “A Profile of American College Faculty: Volume 1: Political Beliefs & Behavior,” says that:
Professors are three times as likely to call themselves “liberal” as “conservative.” In the 2004 presidential election, 72 percent of those surveyed voted for John Kerry.
Almost one-third of professors cite the United States as among the top two greatest threats to international stability — more than cited Iran, China, or Iraq.
Fifty-four percent of professors say U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is partially responsible for the growth of Islamic militancy.
Sixty-four percent say the government’s powers under the USA Patriot Act should be weakened.
Professors, says the report, are at the “forefront of the political divide” over U.S. foreign policy that has developed since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Faculty members have “aligned themselves in direct opposition to the political philosophy of the conservative base voting for the prevailing political power” in America, it says. Unlike most Americans, it adds, faculty members “blame America for world problems” and regard U.S. policies as “suspect.”
The report labels the faculty’s overall stance as liberal “groupthink,” and says it is dangerous because faculty members “are supposed to provide a broad range of … approaches to addressing problems in American society and around the world.”
Sounds like a diversity problem!
JOHN KEEGAN writes that Iraq is not Vietnam: “Anyone familiar with both situations will be struck by the dissimilarities, particularly of scale and in the nature of the enemy.”
Keegan notes, however, that the “media war” isn’t quite so different.
THIS WEEK’S BLOG WEEK IN REVIEW PODCAST is up, and it’s almost all about Lawrence Wright’s new book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wright is one of the guests, along with Austin Bay and Richard Fernandez of The Belmont Club.
WELL, I VOTED TODAY, on the “Hart Intercivic eSlate” voting machine. The early-voting location was pretty crowded, and one of the poll workers told me that it’s been very busy — like a Presidential election, he said, not a midterm. Apparently, not many voters are deciding to stay home. If this reflects a more general trend, that’s probably good news for the Republicans.
There’s been a lot of speculation, interestingly, on how I was going to vote in the Tennessee Senate contest between Harold Ford and Bob Corker. Take your guess here, and all will be revealed later.
UPDATE: Well, with over 3500 votes in, it’s Corker by a slim margin (40-36). But Frank J. runs a strong third!
That’s pretty much how it was in my mind, too. I liked Harold Ford, Jr. when we interviewed him, and I wouldn’t shed any tears if he were elected; he’d raise the caliber of the Democrats in the Senate. But when push came to shove, I voted for Corker. I liked him, too, and ultimately the combination of Ford’s “F” rating on gun rights and the sleazy “outing” behavior of the Democrats was such that I just felt I had to vote Republican in this race. (In our interview, Corker said he’d look favorably on federal legislation to require states to recognize each others’ gun-carry permits.)
As I mentioned before, the Republicans don’t really deserve my vote — though as Bob Corker hasn’t been in Washington that’s not really his fault — but nonetheless the Democrats have blown it again. Not long ago I was thinking that a Democratic majority in Congress wouldn’t be so bad; but the sexual McCarthyism from the pro-outing crowd, coupled with the Dems’ steadfast refusal to offer anything useful on national security, has convinced me that they just don’t deserve a victory with those tactics. That’s not Ford’s fault, either, really. But I just don’t think the Democrats are ready for a majority right now. We’ll see how many other voters agree.
I split my votes, supporting Democrat Phil Bredesen for Governor, and — of course — I voted against the Tennessee anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment. In order to pass, that will have to get not just a majority, but a majority of all votes cast in the gubernatorial race, meaning that not voting on it is tantamount to a “no” vote. I hope it won’t pass; it’s not getting a lot of publicity, though I’m sure that the religious-right crowd is pushing it in direct mail, etc.
ANOTHER UPDATE: How did I vote in the House race? Well, there isn’t really one here, as the incumbent, Jimmy Duncan (R), is a lock. But I actually voted for his Democratic opponent, John Greene. Yes, it was a protest vote: Greene’s gotten virtually no publicity and I don’t know much about him.
IT’S ANOTHER EPISODE OF THE VENT over at Hot Air. It’s like The View, only with smarter people.
IN THE MAIL: Efraim Karsh’s Islamic Imperialism : A History.
Interestingly, I thought I’d gotten it in the mail because of the blog, but my colleague Becky Jacobs, who doesn’t blog, got one in the mail yesterday too. She teaches international law, so I guess Yale University Press is distributing this widely to law professors in related fields. The Amazon reader reviews are quite positive, though one reviewer does call it “Islamophobic,” protesting that “Islam is a universal religon of peace and brotherhood.”
TAKING ON THE MAHDI ARMY: Bill Roggio has a roundup.
MAJOR JOHN TAMMES’ weekly roundup of news from Afghanistan is up!
KIM JONG IL BACKS DOWN:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, was reported to have told a visiting Chinese delegation that the communist nation wasn’t planning more nuclear tests. . . .
Kim told Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan that “we have no plans for additional nuclear tests,” Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Beijing.
Tang led a delegation that met Kim on Thursday in Pyongyang to deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Beijing on Friday, Tang said that his trip had “not been in vain.” Chinese officials also expressed hope that the North would return to arms talks that it has boycotted since last year in anger over U.S. financial restrictions.
While I’m disappointed that my plan to goad him into testing until he used up all his fissionable material has failed, I think this is good news. Is it because diplomacy worked? (Yay, Condi!) Or is it because his scientists told him there was no chance of a pulling off a successful test any time soon?
TIGERHAWK: “All along, I assumed that the leak to the New York Times of the summary findings of the National Intelligence Estimate was just another chapter in the permanent bureaucracy’s continuing war against the Bush administration’s foreign policy. After all, I assumed, why would a Democratic operative be so stupid as to work directly with the New York Times on such a story? It’s an election year, and the Democrats are struggling to portray themselves as trustworthy on matters of national security. Nothing would look worse than a calculated leak of intelligence findings that — while doing damage to the president politically — would give hope and comfort to the enemy. Silly me.”
UPDATE: Ace has more thoughts.
LIEBERMAN OPENS A SEVENTEEN POINT LEAD in the latest Connecticut poll. I tend to be skeptical of polling, but that’s huge.
AT THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE, more on Al Qaeda and the media invasion of America.
AUSTIN BAY: “If demography is destiny, then news of America’s decline is (like Mark Twain’s death) decidedly premature.”
The French, however, are doing their best to engineer a baby boom.