Archive for 2006
January 24, 2006
IF KANYE WEST HAD BALLS, he’d pose as Mohammed, instead of Jesus. But he doesn’t. Efforts to be controversial have become so predictable. Yawn.
THE BBC’S WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT is tired of America-bashing.
PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH has a post-mortem on the Canadian elections, plus a suggestion for Daniel Drezner.
Meanwhile, over at GlennReynolds.com, I suggest that the Canadian elections ought to serve as a warning to the GOP.
I THINK IT’S PROBABLY OK to question Joel Stein’s patriotism:
I DON’T SUPPORT our troops. . . . But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you’re willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it’s Vietnam.
Actually, to some people it’s always Vietnam.
UPDATE: The Mudville Gazette notes a rather sharp contrast.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein is unimpressed. So is Major John Tammes: “‘a fighting tool of American imperialism’? Really, sir, that is so 1968.”
MORE: Hugh Hewitt interviewed Stein. Here’s a transcript.
And though Stein wrote “you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico,” that may turn out not to be the case.
Meanwhile, as number two, the LAT seems to be trying harder.
STILL MORE: J.D. Johannes is glad that Stein is out of the closet: “Stein, a humor columnist whose writing I have enjoyed over the years is pointing out an uncomfortable truth for the left. If the troops support the war, want to win, want to see it through to the end, how can calling for their immediate withdrawal be supporting them? . . . The anti-war-left’s support for the troops is a charade. They know the soldiers and Marines volunteer and probably make the same calculus as Stein that the troops are guilty of crimes against conscience. But to advance their political objectives, they swallow hard and pretend to support young men and women whose objective is to kill terrorists. ‘
EVEN MORE: Laura Lee Donoho is very unhappy.
DARFUR UPDATE: Writing in the New York Review of Books, Nicholas Kristof reviews two books on Darfur — Julie Flint and Alex de Waal’s Darfur : A Short History of a Long War,
Much the same has been true of the Western response to the Armenian genocide of 1915, the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, and the Bosnian massacres of the 1990s. In each case, we have wrung our hands afterward and offered the lame excuse that it all happened too fast, or that we didn’t fully comprehend the carnage when it was still under way.
And now the same tragedy is unfolding in Darfur, but this time we don’t even have any sort of excuse. In Darfur genocide is taking place in slow motion, and there is vast documentary proof of the atrocities. Some of the evidence can be seen in the photo reproduced with this essay, which was leaked from an African Union archive containing thousands of other such photos. And now, the latest proof comes in the form of two new books that tell the sorry tale of Darfur: it’s appalling that the publishing industry manages to respond more quickly to genocide than the UN and world leaders do.
Norm Geras comments: “It’s hard not to be led to the most disheartening of conclusions about the putative legitimacy of the international system. For those of us who look towards a strengthening of transnational institutions, and of the quality and the reach of international law, whether in working for peaceful outcomes, in bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, or in preventing major atrocities, especially genocide, how is it possible to speak for that emergent legitimacy, or the claim to one, when the international community repeatedly just stands by as the worst crime on its books unfolds?”
How, indeed? Here are some earlier thoughts of mine on this topic.
JOHN TAMMES: Undefeated in Afghanistan, beaten in America.
GRAND ROUNDS is up!
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal (free link) reports:
When President Bush reveals his budget request in two weeks, he likely will repeat a boast from recent speeches: “We’ve now cut the rate of growth in nonsecurity discretionary spending each year since I’ve been in office.”
But such spending — for everything from air-traffic control to education and prisons — amounts to one-sixth of a $2.5 trillion budget. And it is the only piece that isn’t ballooning.
What are mounting are the political untouchables: defense and the so-called mandatory entitlement programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The bottom line? Total spending this year and for fiscal 2007, which starts Oct. 1, is heading in the same direction it has since the start of the Bush administration: up.
Conservatives are fuming because this is occurring when Republicans control both the White House and Congress. “The White House always says it’s [due to] defense and homeland security…but even without defense and homeland security it’s record spending,” says Brian Riedl, budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The brakes are off everywhere.”
Meanwhile, Howard Kurtz offers part of the explanation:
I’ve always wondered why busy lawmakers make so much time for lobbyists, at least when they’re not playing golf or being comped at Signatures, and gradually I realized: They envision themselves, a few years down the road, in the same role. After all, half the former members of Congress–half!–are now earning many times their Hill salaries by trying to persuade their ex-colleagues to fund a Bridge to Nowhere or some equivalent measure.
That’s only part of the problem, but it’s a significant part.
JOSHUA SHARF has a review of Joel Miller’s new book, Size Matters. Excerpt: “The book is more likely to appeal to conservatives and libertarians looking for ammunition than to open-minded liberals. But it may also help free-marketeers-by-instinct, who’ve never given much thought to the underlying principles. By outlining the case and giving it a structure, Miller is helping to build support from the ground up.”
PATRICK BELTON: reporting from Ramallah.
APPARENTLY, BEING CRUSHED UNDER THE IRON HEEL of Chimpy McHitlerburton’s evil empire isn’t so bad:
Iraqis and Afghans are the among most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a new survey for the BBC suggests. . . .
In Afghanistan, 70% say their own circumstances are improving, and 57% believe that the country overall is on the way up.
In Iraq, 65% believe their personal life is getting better, and 56% are upbeat about the country’s economy.
Go figure.
UPDATE: Norm Geras has more thoughts.
MARC COOPER is unhappy that Pacifica Radio is being taken over by a crazed conspiracy theorist. “So just when media is more important than ever in the political fight, just when cheap digital technology makes radio production immediately doable and accessible, Pacifica has marooned itself on the margin.”
I’m afraid the problem extends beyond Pacifica.
January 23, 2006
CANADIAN ELECTION UPDATE:
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada’s next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.
Nationwide, the Tories are currently leading or elected in 121 ridings, the Liberals in 101, the Bloc in 50 and 28 for the NDP.
The Tories appeared to make significant gains in Ontario and Quebec, leading or elected in at least two dozen seats in Central Canada.
The NDP also made major gains, leading or elected in 30 ridings, up 11 from the 2004 vote.
In Quebec, where they were shut out in 2004, the Tories made major inroads, leading or elected in 10 ridings, eight from the Bloc and two from the Liberals.
In vote-rich Ontario, the Liberals, who captured 75 seats in 2004, are leading or elected in 57 ridings. But the Tories increased their support and are leading or elected in 38 ridings, a gain of 14. The NDP is leading in 11 ridings, up four.
Interestingly, Portugal saw a Socialist defeat yesterday.
And Capt. Ed Morrissey — who can claim a major role in this development with his breaking of the publication ban on the Gomery investigation — has been liveblogging, though heavy traffic has made his site inaccessible at times: “Based on the polls done before the election, that’s a better showing than I expected for the Liberals, but there is still no doubt that tonight has been a debacle for Martin and his party.”
UPDATE: Mark Steyn has a wrapup, and David Warren has thoughts on Canada’s political situation in general. Damian Penny writes: “We’ve been waiting 12 years for this.”
And Kate McMillan is already celebrating. Meanwhile, Publius has thoughts, and Newsbeat 1 is, as always, on top of the story. There’s lots more at NealENews, too.
Steve Janke, I have to say, seems more happy than “Angry in the Great White North” tonight.
And here’s the AP story, whose first paragraph suggests that the Canadian press may not be overjoyed. Actually, most of the paragraphs give that impression.
Too bad! “The Internet has also brought a new class of people into politics — I would almost say a new generation who aren’t accustomed to the old rules.”
MORE: Over at GayPatriot, an observation that anti-Americanism may be the last resort of scoundrelous regimes, but it’s one that hasn’t been working very well lately.
And Ann Althouse writes: “I suppose I’m one of those Americans who don’t spend much time thinking about Canada. I know it’s up there, disapproving of us, like a sanctimonious older sibling. But I like the idea of this change.”
DANIEL GLOVER: “What was John Kerry thinking? . . . Kerry’s first foray into the blogosphere certainly will be memorable — but probably not in a flattering way.”
AS USUAL, Winds of Change has big roundups of war news and Iraq news.
A LOOK AT THE ROLE OF BLOGS and talk radio in the runup to the Canadian election.
GEORGE RUSSELL AND CLAUDIA ROSETT:
How bad is the still expanding scandal in the United Nations’ multi-billion-dollar procurement division? Based on a still-secret internal investigation, the answer is: for the U.N., it is just as bad as the gigantic Oil-for-Food debacle — or maybe worse.
The focus of the current scandal is U.N. peacekeeping, a function that consumes 85 percent of the U.N.’s procurement budget — a cost that could reach $2 billion in 2005. Like many of the U.N.’s financial dealings, it is shrouded in secrecy. And like the multi-billion-dollar Oil-for-Food scandal, it is wrapped in what the U.N.’s own investigators now call “systematic abuse,” “a pattern of corrupt practices,” and “a culture of impunity.”
Read the whole thing.
IF THIS PICTURE doesn’t finish off George Galloway’s career, I don’t know what will.
MATT WELCH IS MOVING TO THE L.A. TIMES: Congratulations, Matt! And I guess this means an LAT turnaround is now imminent.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: John Fund writes:
In the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, It seems everyone has discovered the excesses of pork-barrel spending. Voters may now be disgusted enough to make the political costs to a member seeking pork greater than the benefits.
Read the whole thing. I think he’s right. It’s usually only small sub-constituencies who care about pork. Oldstyle pork-barreling depends on them knowing, and being grateful, while others are oblivious. Sufficient transparency will put an end to that. We’re on the way, but we’re not there yet.
UPDATE: According to his office, Sen. Coburn is going after pork in a big way: “Coburn intends to offer an amendment on every pork project stuffed into appropriations bills this year. There were at least 13,998 earmarked projects contained in last year’s appropriations bills. By way of comparison, the Senate had only 366 roll call votes last year. Needless to say we are beefing up our appropriations staff for this challenge and we have requested that we be given at least 72 hours to review appropriations bills before they are considered.”
LEGAL AFFAIRS is ceasing publication. That’s too bad. They may continue as a Web publication, which makes sense to me. Given their audience and subject matter, I’ve never really understood why they leaned so heavily into the print model.
REDSTATE declares a free-speech victory. More from Rick Hasen and Ann Althouse.
WONDERFALLS UPDATE: I ordered Wonderfalls a while back, but was too busy to sit down and watch it until last night. I was spurred to get it out by this email from reader Jeff Roche:
Just wanted to thank you for your Wonderfalls suggestion on your Blog Instapundit.
I was looking for an extra gift for my Wife for XMas and bought it for the her.
We put off watching it till last night thinking how good can it be. We sat there and watched 4 episodes in a row, laughing the whole time. What a wonderful show. I can’t believe it only aired 4 times before cancellation.
We couldn’t figure out how such a great show could have been cancelled so quickly. Then we read it aired on Fox.
That explains everything. The Network that cancelled “Briscoe County JR”, “Space Above and Beyond”, “Firefly”, etc.
I watched two episodes. The first one put me off a bit — I felt kind of sorry for the heroine, whose troubles are manifold at the kickoff — but I really enjoyed the second, which seemed to hit its stride. I look forward to watching more.
Thanks to Tim Minear, who made the initial recommendation!
MORE ON IRAN, and what to do.
UPDATE: Sorry, that link was open when I posted it, but the Weekly Standard folks seem to have closed it down now; I guess it wasn’t meant to be publicly available yet. My apologies to all concerned.