Henry Hyde died today at age 83. He had heart bypass surgery last July, and never quite recovered.
He was a gentleman, and he will be missed. Condolences to his family, friends, and constituents.
More Proof That Waterboarding Is Not Torture
Think Progress, under the category 'radical rightwing agenda', informs us that John Ashcroft was asked at the University of Colorado if he would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding.
“The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, I would do,” he replied.
Apparently, Democratic Representatives Jerrold Nadler and William Delahunt have introduced the “American Anti-Torture Act of 2007” which would outlaw the practice. This is good: we need clarity on this issue so those fighting the War on Terror know if waterboarding is legal or not. The fact that clarifying legislation is necessary rather proves that waterboarding is not an illegal practice. And if Torquemada himself is willing to be subjected to the practice, well, is that not also proof that it is not only legal, but also not tortuous as well? Remember: no one ever volunteers to undergo real torture.
Syria Joins Doomed Annapolis Conference
The outcome of the Annapolis Conference, which begins Tuesday and will last for three days, is pre-ordained: it will accomplish nothing, and will prove to be a complete waste of everyone's time. The Conference is intended to bring the Arabs, Palestinians, the UN Security Council member states and Israel together to resolve issues on the way to the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians do not want peace, however, their Arab allies do not want peace, and the Palestinians are in the midst of a civil war such that any nascent achievements from Annapolis will quickly be undone.
Syria decided to join the conference, once it learned that the issue of the Golan Heights might be on the table. The Golan Heights are an extremely strategic part of northern Israel (annexed in 1981), a natural tank trap of stone on a plateau that dominates the surrounding country. The Syrians used it as a fortress to reign terror down upon the Israelis until the Israelis seized it in 1967, and the Syrians are not getting it back, nor should they. Syria is not really serious about the conference anyway, sending a deputy foreign minister instead of the real thing, whom, it is being reported is going for no other purpose than to sabotage the conference and make sure no Arab states attending decide to recognize Israel.
The usual wonderful good faith and outreach to peace that the Arabs customarily show. No wonder this conference is doomed to fail.
Update: Hamas, naturally, has anything but peace in mind, according to spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouk - "Resistance to the Zionist enemy will intensify through the West Bank and Gaza, because Annapolis will expose the uselessness of the process and its destructiveness."
Is he making the point here that no diplomacy is less deadly than the 'just keep talking for the sake of talking' obeisance paid to diplomacy by the peaceniks? Someone had better email this article to Dennis Kucinich.
Another Hamas official, Ahmed Yousef, claimed that Hamas can make its rocket attacks deadlier by packing them with more explosives.
Yeah, these people want peace alright.
Kasparov Beaten And Arrested!
Putin's thugs have gone too far:
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, leader of the opposition Other Russia coalition, was beaten and arrested for resisting arrest, and will sit five days in jail. He was at a Moscow rally calling for Vladimir Putin's ouster.
(h/t Gateway Pundit)
A Republican Surge In '08?
Of course not, according to the sycophantic MSM, the correct meme is that the Democrats will triumph over all in '08 because . . . well it is hard say why, given the following:
Presidential Campaign
Democratic frontrunner: inexperienced, very high negatives, political tin ear. Could cause the downballot to collapse if nominated.
Republican frontrunner: executive experience (no on-the-job training necessary, Hillary), charismatic, good political instincts (either Rudy or Mitt fits this description).
Congress
Democrats: 11% approval rating for a Dem-majority Congress. Enough said. Remember how many of the freshman Republicans after '94 got swept back out of the House in '96? Dems are trying hard to repeat history.
Republicans: unfortunately, they have a natural knack for being effective only when in the minority.
War in Iraq
Democrats: we can still have a defeat, if we just try harder!
Republicans: proven right about the Surge. Continued abatement of violence vindicates Iraq policies, takes Iraq off the table as an issue. Evaporates the Democratic 'mandate' from '06.
Taxes
Democrats: higher taxes are the answer to every problem, in every context, all the time.
Republicans: American like lower taxes. Who, seriously, votes to have their taxes raised?
National Security
Democrats: what's that?
Republicans: it ain't pretty, it ain't perfect, but at least wetake it seriously.
Illegal Immigration
Democrats: let's turn them all into Democrats as soon as possible.
Republicans: this is priority for many Republicans, independents and Democrats. We've learned that now!
Corruption
Old news: Jack Abramoff, Bernard Kerick, Duke Cunningham.
New news: Norman Hsu, Fujian busboys, William 'Cold Cash' Jefferson (Democrat, Louisiana).
Happy Turkey Day!
A picture of U.S. troops on Thanksgiving in Europe, 1944, lifted from James Lileks:
Not one of those guys can take their eyes off those birds. Can you blame them? Heh, I wonder if any of them has had a shower since Normandy.
This is poignant picture - these guys still had to face some of the very toughest fighting of the war, in the Battle of the Bulge, Arnhem and crossing the Rhine. I wonder how many of them made it.
Joe Klein Gets E-xcommunicated By The Left
Joe Klein is worth reading - he's partisan, but well able to call Democrats out on their stupidities. 'Stupid' certainly describes the Democrats on national security, both stupid as a practical matter, and stupid as far as politics. Klein tells the Dems in his article The Tone-Deaf Democrats that opposing FISA reform hands the Republicans a great line: that the Democrats favor a 'terrorists' bill of rights'. Opposing funding for the troops in order to wrangle withdrawal dates from Iraq, especially now that victory may be upon us, is also obviously dumb politics.
Now Glenn Greenwald is also partisan, but he is also deeply dishonest. Unfortunately, some people take him seriously, and the leftists are giving him kudos for assaulting Klein. Greenwald quotes this from Klein's article:
Unfortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quashed the House Intelligence Committee's bipartisan effort and supported a Democratic bill that -- Limbaugh is salivating -- would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court, an institution founded to protect the rights of U.S. citizens only. In the lethal shorthand of political advertising, it would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans. That is well beyond stupid.
Greenwald thinks he brilliantly skewers Klein, exposing Klein's a) ignorance, or b) secret blood alliance with Rush Limbaugh, by pointing out two grievous errors in Klein's analysis: that FISA applies not only to U.S. citizens, but to resident aliens as well, and more importantly, that FISA does not require warrants for calls not coming into the U.S.
The third option, that the genius Greenwald thought of but disingenuously did not mention, is that Klein did not include those details because they are completely irrelevant and beside the point. Brevity is the soul of wit, Glenn, something Klein has learned and you haven't.
Many of Greenwald's flying monkeys went to berate Klein at the Swampland armed with just as much knowledge of FISA as could be found in Greenwald's post, plus whatever they could Google in five minutes' time. Read some of the comments and see how Klein gets treated. I ask you: does the Right treat anyone like this when they say something the 'base', whatever that is, doesn't agree with them? Maybe so, but I can't think of any examples. I remember Ramesh Ponuru taking heat for claiming that bin Ladenism is driven by the West's depraved morality. Hugh Hewitt took heat over the Harriet Miers nomination - but all seems to have been forgiven and forgotten with those two.
Compare and contrast the treatment of Joe Lieberman, who has been thoroughly e-xcommunicated.
Here is what the flavor of the day had to say about this over at FirePlugPuddle:
Me, I think we need to scrap the lot. All the DC elites who supported the war and continue to cheer it on, all the misguided media shills, all the Righty screamers and know-nothing NeoCons need to be handed their pink slips and put to work in a prison laundry. Chris Matthews? Buh-bye. Tim Russert? Smell ya later! Joe Klein, Mickey Kaus, Peter “Bunny” Beinart, and Bill Effing Kristol? All of you are, like, so FIRED.
. . . and their little dog Toto, too.
Man, they don't just want to throw the rightwing under the bus, they want to throw everyone under the bus. This should give us on the Right pause for relief, for this is the Democratic base.
Masters Of Disaster
Here is a website chock-full of disaster that some of you may like. It is the GlobalIncidentMap.com, and it highlights terrorist acts and 'suspicious activity' throughout the world as it happens. In addition to the usual bomb blasts, it also notes stories such as Swedish 'indian' activists committing hundreds of acts of sabotage against SUVs. Or a rabbit that died of anthrax at the University of New Mexico.
The website also has a map that displays the locations of mosques in some parts of the United States. No particular incidents or threats, just . . . mosques. As if they are contagious or something. It makes me wonder about the motivations of this site's creators.
Anyway, for you paranoids out there - this site ain't gonna help!
Be Very Afraid: Blonde Is Contagious
There is sound scientific evidence that merely looking at blondes causes the male IQ to drop:
"Researchers discovered what might be called the “bimbo delusion” by studying men’s ability to complete general knowledge tests after exposure to different women. The academics found that men’s scores fell after they were shown pictures of blondes."
I think this is because in the presense of blondes, mens' blood rushes from their brains to somewhere else.
(h/t HotAir)
Ron Paul!!1!1! Has His Own Currency
It's like a textbook case right out of the Paranoid Style in American Politics. Ron Paul enthusiasts have been busted by the feds for striking coins as a protest against the Federal Reserve Bank and America's 'unsound' currency. There is nothing wrong with producing commemorative coins, for example, but passing them off as legal tender (by calling them 'dollars') is pretty much guaranteed to earn the ire of the Treasury Department.
Naturally, the fact that the jackbooted thugs at the FBI are taking exception to crackpots issuing rival, unauthorized currency means that we need Ron Paul all that much more:
"People are pretty upset about this," said Jim Forsythe, head of the Paul Meetup group in New Hampshire, who said he recently ordered 150 of the copper coins. "The dollar is going down the tubes, and this is something that can protect the value of their money, and the Federal Reserve is threatened by that. It'll definitely fire people up."
The Federal Reserve is 'threatened' by obtuse attempts to undermine our currency? You don't say.
Surprise! Big Hillary Contributor In Trouble With The Law
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Mauricio Celis
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A big democratic contributor was just busted in Texas for practicing law without a license, perjury, and impersonating a sheriff's deputy.
The impersonation charge is quite interesting:
"In that case, police reported that a naked woman ran from Celis' home to a convenience store, claiming she had been in a hot tub and groped against her will. Celis quickly followed her into the store, wearing a bathrobe. He flashed a sheriff's deputy badge from a nearby county and told police at the store that he would take custody of the woman, police said."
Celis has also been arrested on charges he held himself out as a lawyer, and even owned a controlling interest in a law firm even though he is not a lawyer. He was also indicted on perjury charges.
According to the story above, Celis has contributed thousands of dollars to candidates, including Hillary Clinton, and according to OpenSecrets.org, Chrisopher Dodd.
Ed Morrisey also has this to say about Celis:
How important is Celis? In the last three cycles, Celis donated over $110,000 to Democrats. Donations went to John Edwards, Claire McCaskill, Ken and John Salazar, and especially the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the DNC, the latter two of which accounts for almost half of those donations. Hillary Clinton received a maximum donation of $2300 from Celis in March, presumably for her primary fund. He's a fairly heavy hitter, especially here in Texas.
Candidates don't always know who is donating to their campaigns. It isn't necessarily a reflection on the candidate's integrity when unsavory contributors end up in the news. But the ever-growing list of indicted, felonious and illegal contributors to Hillary's campaign sure does seem like a bit more than a statistical blip. Does Hillary Clinton have any contributors who are on the up-and-up?
The Happy Face Of Red Fascism
Oh look, the jackbooted thought police have big weepy eyes and cute little noses! They don't want to harm you - they want to help you keep your thoughts pure, and keep you away from any ideas or images that aren't pre-approved by the government. For your own protection!
This image and similiar ones will soon appear on screens in China every half-hour, merrily reminding the viewers that they live in a fascist state.
(h/t Glenn Reynolds).
The Limits Of Tolerance
You want to have an open mind. You want to understand that other cultures, nations and religions have different ways of doing things. You want to be tolerant, and understand that other folks see things differently than you do.
And then you read stories like this:
A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.The 19-year-old woman -- whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms -- was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.
But in a new verdict issued after Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial, the court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.
A court source told the English-language Arab News that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."
There is no getting around it. A society that does this is our enemy.
Common Sense Questions Al Gore Can't Answer
Scientists can't predict the weather two weeks from now, but we are supposed to believe that they can predict it 20 years from now with infallible precision?
Of all the potential causes of global warming - the natural ebb and flow of the climate, sun activity, bovine flatulence , etc. - we know for certain that human pollution is the only cause?
Is it possible that human pollution is only partly responsible for global warming?
Do we even know if it is reversible at this point, assuming we caused it in the first place?
We are supposed to upturn our economies for that? While letting the really big polluters such as China escape any costs for it?
Even if there is global warming . . . so what? It will take thousands of years to reach the 23 feet of ocean rising Al Gore claims will happen, and the oceans have risen mere centimeters in the last century or so. Are humans now suddenly incapable of adapting to climate changes that have occurred many times before throughout our development as a species?
Global warming has indeed occurred innumerable times before, at levels far higher than we are experiencing now. And yet . . . how did the polar bear as a species survive?
Here is the real question: how do we know this isn't some scam by radical environmentalists to destroy capitalism by other means? It isn't as if they haven't used scare tactics and specious theories before . . .
We Must Destroy Hollywood In Order To Save It
Mickey Kaus linked to this article calling it "Steven Bochco's answer" as to why the recent spate of liberal hate-America movies out of Hollywood are all dismal failures. Well, the article oddly has no author listed anywhere (unless I am blind and missed it) so I will have to take Mickey's word for it.
'Bochco' quotes Lew Harris, editor of Movies.com:
"People want war movies to have a slam-bang adventure feel to them ... But Iraq is a difficult war to portray in a kind of rah-rah-rah, exciting way."
How do we know that? It hasn't been tried. It is also absolute nonsense. Think . . . Black Hawk Down. That movie did very well at the box office portraying American soldiers in an extremely tough situation blowing away enemies of America. What is so difficult to grasp about that? If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results . . . it is safe to say that Hollywood has lost its mind.
There is a profound justice in all of this. The wretched 'Lions for Lambs' is so unwatchable, and doing so poorly at the box office, that it might imperil MGM's ability to finance films. When is Hollywood going to look beyond its own bubble and start making movies that actually appeal to the American people . . . or at the very least don't turn them off? At some point, the bottom line will have to count for more than producers making movies just to please each other.
Between this and the writers' strike, Hollywood is in a deep quagmire from which it might not emerge. Is that really such a bad thing?
Hillary's Campaign Comes Crashing Down
This is a funny little moment - after Hillary Clinton gives a press conference in Waterloo, Iowa on Veterans' Day, the American flags on stage just start taking a nosedive.
Many see this as a sign . . .
P.S. Is that the lovely and talented (ahem) Huma "Darkstar" Abedin in the background? She almost looks like the flag-tipping culprit there.
David Shribman Oddly Stumbles Onto The Truth
RealClearPolitics has a piece up by David Shribman of the The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Clinton & Giuliani: Each is What the Other is Not that points out that, wow, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are very different from each other. His conclusion - that Hillary and Rudy are like fire and ice, almost literally - is correct, but the way he gets there is a bit odd. Here is the first oddity:
"the entire 2008 election is a referendum on Hillary Clinton, who isn't even president."
It's called an election, not a referendum, and yes, when a candidate has not yet been president it is entirely fair to criticize their non-presidential history. Shribman then comes up with this head-scratcher:
"Ordinarily, with an economy in confusion if not upheaval and with an unpopular war being prosecuted by an unpopular president, you might think that the election would be about the sitting president. But, apart from anti-Bush barbs tossed to the Democratic masses like pieces of raw meat, President Bush is the missing man from the 2008 contest."
He is the 'missing man' because he isn't allowed to run again in 2008. The Democrat candidates have, however, been running against President Bush - that is obvious from the debates. That is a mistake, and a mistake that Shribman thinks is good politics apparently.
Shribman then puts together a string of howlers:
They define each other. Mr. Giuliani is intuitive; Mrs. Clinton is cerebral. Giuliani is deeply emotional; Clinton is deeply rational. Giuliani has a habit of demonizing his opponents; Clinton is accustomed to being demonized.
Hillary is 'deeply rational'? We often hear such paens to Hillary's awesome intellect, but is there any proof she actually possesses above-average intelligence apart from the usual hagiographic tripe from the MSM? Shribman, by calling Giuliani 'intuitive' in comparison is attempting to call Giuliani 'irrational', especially compared to the human computer that is Hillary Clinton. Shribman should know that no one becomes a highly successful federal prosecutor without a very high intelligence quotient. My guess is that Hillary does not possess the brain power to do that job.
As for Giuliani demonizing his opponents . . . that has been true, but Hillary, the think-skinned Queen of Smashmouth Politics is far more adept at dishing it out than taking it. She is hardly a victimized naif in this department.
Why I Am Voting For Rudy Giuliani
. . . because America is ready for a president whose name ends with a vowel.
Torture Ain't What It Used To Be
Here is the best proof that waterboarding is not torture: no one volunteers to be tortured, ever. No one volunteers to have their skin blowtorched until it melts like a candle, or hung tied up over a bar like the parrot's perch torture, or have holes drilled into their head, or their body beaten until their internal organs are scrambled.
Yet here we have activists out on the street pretending waterboarding is the real thing. We are supposed to hold up the nomination of a potential attorney general's nomination over this? We are supposed to be ashamed of the Bush administration over this . . . hazing ritual? And it isn't even illegal? I can see why . . . as far as tortures go, this is pretty tame stuff.
This video is supposed to illustrate the horror of waterboarding, but all it does it mock the real thing. That woman might as well be yelling "you don't want to talk? Do you want THE COMFY CHAIR?" It has convinced me that it is not torture, and should be widely practiced against our enemies.
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