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"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

A Blame Game With Little Offense

Washington Post
...the players did not clash. Despite some sniping and testiness, the surprising theme was unity.

Democrats and Republicans alike -- past and present secretaries and deputy secretaries of state and defense -- spoke little of Clinton vs. Bush and lots about Before vs. After...

...former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, insisted that before the "megashock" of 9/11, stronger action against al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden was nearly impossible. "Diplomatic backing would have been virtually nonexistent" for a manned military strike at bin Laden's sanctuaries in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan...

...the first witness, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, insisted that before the "megashock" of 9/11, stronger action against al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden was nearly impossible. "Diplomatic backing would have been virtually nonexistent" for a manned military strike at bin Laden's sanctuaries in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, she said.

Her successor, Colin L. Powell, emphatically agreed. The region in which bin Laden was operating was a powder keg of feuding, struggling and extremist states that might have blown up had the United States acted more forcefully before the terrible provocation of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon...

...When commission member and former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) argued that the U.S. military should have put commandos into Afghanistan to wipe out bin Laden's bases before 9/11, Cohen argued heatedly that America's allies, Congress and public would never have gone for it.

Later, Kerrey warned Cohen's successor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, that he was about to pose the same question. Rumsfeld smiled his tight little smile and parried: "I'm going to give you the same answer, because I thought he did a good job."...

...There was "a daily coordination phone call meeting" of senior officials, Powell continued, and "we formalized regular luncheons." Ultimately this resulted, a week before the attacks, in "NSPD-9," the new U.S. plan for dealing with terrorism...

...Powell bristled when a commission Democrat, former representative Timothy J. Roemer (Ind.), brandished Clarke's book and read a passage in which the author described a briefing at which he warned Powell of al Qaeda's reach. It was Dec. 20, 2000, and one of the PowerPoint slides prepared by Clarke reportedly said of the terrorists, "They're here" in the United States.

"At the time that he gave me the briefing, I was not the secretary of state, this administration was not in office," Powell answered. "If they were aware that al Qaeda representatives were already in the country running around . . . why hadn't they done something while they were preparing the PowerPoint presentation?"...
This was the most interesting hearing I have seen since the Thomas nomination hearings. It was pretty riveting stuff. The hearing tomorrow is likely to be even better.

What was most surprising to me was that both Clinton and Bush officials essentially agreed on the policy choices that the other made. Rumsfeld and Cohen could have given each others speeches and it would have been hard to notice any discrepancy. In fact the witnesses often referred to each other’s answers as being correct.

Bob Kerry was quite emphatic about his argument that something could have been tried to take out Bin Laden. Compared to the seriousness of the witnesses, it mostly made Sen. Kerry sound like an infant having a temper tantrum.

Clearly, the random acts of violence that Kerry was proposing would have likely been both ineffective and crippling to the US political position.

It is ridiculous to argue, as Bob Kerry did today, that Clinton could have ordered a military operation on the ground in Afghanistan in 1998 or 2000. The states in the region wouldn’t have stood for it, our allies would have denounced us, our enemies would have been ecstatic for an opportunity to criticize us, the Congress would have demanded a new impeachment hearing for Clinton, leftist activists would have been marching and rioting in the streets of the US and Europe, and the general public would not have supported President Clinton.

Theoretically, I suppose that something could have been done. But the reality was that doing something similar to Kerry’s suggestion would have been worse than useless -- it would have set back the fight against terrorism for years, and unnecessarily cost hundreds if not thousands of lives.


Champion Losers

Slate (Liberal)  

How France is using terrorism to excuse idiotic economic policies.
...Nationalization may no longer be in vogue in the large economies of continental Europe. But a strong sense of nationalism still pervades these governments' attitudes toward capitalism. And it's ironic. The Eurozone has a single currency—the euro—and a single central bank largely because Germany and France wanted them. But when it comes to the private sector, the nations most invested in European economic integration are the ones most unsettled by its implications...

350 Tax Increases?

Slate (Liberal)  

President Bush applies the Powell Doctrine to running
President Bush seems to be running his re-election campaign on the basis of the Powell Doctrine: Go in with overwhelming force from the start, and strike a blow from which the enemy can never recover. Like the United States in Iraq, the Bush campaign has superior fire power and far more money...

...The purpose of a phony statistic like this one isn't really to persuade people of its own accuracy. The purpose is to trap your opponent in a discussion he doesn't want to have (in this case about his past votes about taxes), bog the discussion down in silly details that few people will follow, and leave a general impression that where there is smoke, there must be fire...

Doctors: Chemo could help people with MS

Salon (Liberal)  
Doctors report promising results using huge doses of a potent chemotherapy drug to treat autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, though only a handful of patients have been treated so far and one MS researcher said far more study is needed before any victory is declared...
For those of you who don't know me very well, I am interested in this because my father has MS.

Disgruntled former employees

Talking Points Memo (Liberal)  

It's amazing how many partisan Democrats and disgruntled former employees working under cover as career civil servants, spies and military officers have betrayed this president. It just seems to happen again and again and again. I mean, just think of the list: Rand Beers, well-known partisan Democrat and hack, Richard Clarke, self-promoter, disgruntled former employee, and "self-regarding buffoon", Karen Kwiatkowski, conspiracy theorist and all-around freak, Valerie Plame, hack and nepotist, Joe Wilson, partisan hack, self-promoter and shameless green tea lover. When will the abuse end?

My Wish

Political Animal (Liberal)   
Madeleine Albright, testifying before Congress today, says the Clinton administration "did everything we could, everything we could think of" to fight al-Qaeda during their time in office.

This, of course, is the party line for everyone, but you know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see just one person fess up and admit that, in retrospect, we obviously didn't take them seriously enough.
Secretary Cohen was brilliant today, and the commission didn't lay a finger on Rumsfeld. Maybe DCI Tenet towmorrow will be more interesting. Everyone in Washington loves this guy for some reason, but he keeps screwing up over and over again. Tenet is my vote for fallguy.

The Clarke Accusations

There is one certain way to know if Clarke's accusations are true. Test the one part of his story that can be verified. Clarke has mentioned that there were five witnesses to his confrontation with Bush. So why not ask the witnesses?

I have seen reports that these witnesses have stated that the conversation (which apparently took about a minute) did in fact take place. But that kind of statement isn't very helpful.

What we need to know is if Clarke's perceptions of what happened are accurate. Clarke said Bush was hostile and attempted to intimidate him into creating a memo that would accuse Iraq of 9/11. What was Bush's demeanor? How did he phrase his order? What was his tone of voice? Did the other witnesses see this event in the same way that Clarke did, or was Clarke delusional?

As far as I can tell from searching the Internet, no reporter has gotten any of the witnesses to comment on the specifics of this conversation/confrontation (other to reconfirm that some sort of conversation did happen). Why not? This could be the story of the decade. It has been almost a week since the media got the book and there has still been no interview with the witnesses on this matter?

So, test Clarke’s story here. If the witnesses don’t support his interpretation of what occurred, then his other accusations are likely to be false and can be ignored. But, if he is vindicated by the witnesses, then it seems likely that the rest of his book is true, and Bush should be impeached for gross misconduct.

There must be some reporter out there with a little ambition. I mean, they can't all be a bunch of lazy stenographers posing as professional journalists.


The New York Times' role in promoting war on Iraq

Syndey Morning Herald

...Judith Miller is one of the NYT's most senior journalists. A Pulitzer Prize winning writer and regarded expert on Middle East issues and WMD, Miller has written extensively on Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network.

In the run-up to the Iraq War, Miller became a key reporter on that country’s supposedly documented WMDs. She wrote many articles relayed around the globe on the Bush administration’s doomsday reading of Saddam’s regime. She painted a terrifying picture of his arsenal with apparently sound intelligence sources to back her claims.

However, it emerged that the vast majority of her WMD claims came through Ahmed Chalabi, an indicted fraudster and one of the leading figures in the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the group keen to militarily overthrow Saddam. Miller relied on untested defectors’ testimonies (usually provided by Chalabi) to write several front-page stories on this information...
Judith Miller is in the bag for her sources.

Frank Discussions: John Derbyshire

IMAO (generic weirdo)  

...John Derbyshire is a columnist, author, mathematician, uncredited thug, general curmudgeon, and one writer at National Review I wouldn't try and replace. He's decidedly as non-PC as they get, and often sports controversy because of it (he once put up a math problem about monkeys and it scared me)...

Q. So what's it like writing for National Review? Is it fun fun fun everyday, or is it your own private hell that you suffer with dignity and grace?
A. A laff riot, except for those times they call you up and say: "Can you give us 1,000 words on energy policy by 4 o'clock?" That's when you try desperately to forget the combination code for the handgun safe.

Q. You seem to court controversy a lot more than other writers at National Review (one of the quotes for your merchandise is about how you have some opinions that aren't "respectable"). Is that because you're more daring or because everyone else is a pansy?
A. I think mostly it's just that I'm older. Grew up in the age before PC. Never internalized the necessary restraints. The NR people have only recently weaned me off saying "Negro."...
This man is a total freak of nature.

Hamas leaders chose Rantisi to succeed Yasin

Maariv (Israeli newspaper)  

"US offered Yasin immunity if he stopped terror." Group says it's willing to talk with all factions. Abu Ala visits mourners' tent, calls for unity.
...Sheikh Said Siam, another senior functionary of Hamas, earlier gave Maariv Online the first official confirmation for reports that appeared recently in the Arab press that the United States offered the organization's leader Sheikh Ahmad Yasin immunity from attempts on his life in return for a stop to terrorist attacks.

This immunity, according to Sheikh Siam, would have applied only to the political wing of Hamas and not to its armed wing, the Iz a-Din el-Kassam Brigades. The offer was relayed to Yasin by intermediaries, but he rejected it saying "the blood of Hamas leaders is no dearer than that of a Palestinian child."...

Attention Un-American Government Employees

Wonkette (DC Anarchist)  

We hear that Wonkette is also barred from NIH and the Smithsonian. That must really suck for the two readers effected. But if you or someone you know can't get to Wonkette because of a workplace web filter and yet still feel comfortable getting caught reading it, try out this tip from a fellow Wonketteer:

Just a quick note to say that many filters can by bypassed via Alta Vista's translation services: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Just use the Babelfish to translate the target site from Japanese to English. It won't find any Japanese and will leave the existing English alone, returning basically the same page
...
I love this woman.

Richard Clarke's Decorum Problem

Wonkette (DC gossip)  

The White House has just released the letter Richard Clarke wrote to President Bush upon his resignation from the administration...

...We can imagine, for instance, the first draft of Clarke's resignation letter:

I will always remember the courage, determination, leadership and out-of-control bloodlust you demonstrated on September 11th, first on the video link from STRATCOM and later that day in the PEOC and the Situation Room, when you accosted me and humiliated me. I sort of got off on that.

Clarke may be a hypocrite, but who doesn't kiss a little ass on the way out the door?...
Except that Clarke is saying that he was morally outraged at the misconduct of the Bush administration. If he felt so strongly (which he clearly does) why didn't he tell off somebody.

FEC filings database

Fundrace.org  

Fundrace.org has been updated to reflect contributions of more than $200 through Feb. 29, 2004.

The Daily Show and Others Weigh In On John Kerry

Blackfive (conservative)  

Jay Leno has really been abusing Kerry recently. I wonder why now?
"The White House begun airing their TV commercials to re-elect the president, and the John Kerry campaign is condemning his use of 9/11 in the ads. He said, it is conscionable to use the tragic memory of a war in order to get elected, unless of course, it's the Vietnam War." - Jay Leno

"John Kerry has promised to take this country back from the wealthy. Who better than the guy worth $700 million to take the country back? See, he knows how the wealthy think. He can spy on them at his country club, at his place in Palm Beach, at his house in the Hamptons. He's like a mole for the working man." - Jay Leno

"According to a new study, Botox injections can help back pain. So you see, that's why John Kerry had all that Botox - his back was killing him from all that flip-flopping on issues." - Jay Leno

"John Kerry said today that he wants to get rid of tax cuts for the rich and his wife said, 'Hey, shut up! What's the matter with you?! Are you nuts?!'" - Jay Leno

"They had a profile of John Kerry on the news and they said his FIRST WIFE was worth around $300 million and his SECOND WIFE, his current wife, is worth around $700 million. His intern (with whom he supposedly had an affair) was worth several more million. So when John Kerry says he's going after the wealthy in this country, he's not just talking. He's doing it!" - Jay Leno

"In his speech last night, John Kerry said this was the beginning of the end of the Bush administration. I agree. Sure, it will probably take another five years, but this is it." - Jay Leno
Man that is just mean! Where is this comming from?

EU set to fine Microsoft over US$600 million

Ars Technica (tech news)  

After a flurry of last-minute negotiations (which included Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer flying to Brussels for a sit-down with European Union regulators) failed, the EU will tomorrow announce a fine of 500 million (around US$617 million) as well as additional sanctions against the Redmond, Washington based software giant...

U.S. Team in Baghdad Fights a Persistent Enemy: Rumors

New York Times

The American project to build a stable democracy in Iraq has encountered many obstacles. But perhaps the most elusive enemy is an old phantom called rumor.
Less than 24 hours after a bombing in central Baghdad that tore the facade off the Mount Lebanon Hotel, the rumors began circulating in the marketplaces and teahouses: that the hotel was demolished not by a bomb, as the Americans maintained, but by an errant American missile...

...Those are just a few of the rumors collected by the staff of The Baghdad Mosquito, a daily intelligence document that chronicles the latest street talk in the Iraqi capital, however ill founded, bizarre or malevolent...